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BR  100  .M54  1892 
Miller,  Emory,  b.  1834. 
The  evolution  of  love 


THE   EVOLUTION    OF   LOVE 


THE 


Evolution  of  Love 


BY 


/ 


EMORY   MILLER,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


CHICAGO 

A.   C.   McCLURG   AND   COMPANY 

1892 


Copyright, 

By  A.  C.  McClurg  and  Co. 

a.d.  1S92. 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction vii 

Part  first. 

IMPLICATIONS  OF  BEING. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    Being,  as  Perceived 19 

II.    Being,  as  Conceived 38 

III.     Being,  as  Conditioned 72 

Part  &Ecrmti. 

IMPLICATIONS  OF  LOVE. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     Creation 107 

II.     The  Genesis  of  Evil 168 

III.  The  Solution  of  Evil 190 

IV.  Atoning  Fact       267 

V.    The  Revelation  of  Atoning  Fact  .     .     .  298 

VI.      ESCHATOLOGY 328 


INTRODUCTION. 


Superstition,  opinion,  discrimination  !  Three  epo- 
chal words !  The  first  has  had  its  day,  the  second  its 
noon  ;  the  sun  of  discrimination  is  dawning. 

The  spirit  of  our  day  indulges  no  remark  with  more 
complacency  than  this:  "The  age  of  superstition  is 
past."  Though  a  doubt  may  exist  as  to  whether  super- 
stition is  vanquished  or  has  only  changed  its  forms,  we 
may  safely  believe  it  broken  in  some  departments  of  life 
and  largely  superseded  in  others.  But  it  may  be  well  to 
observe  what  has  taken  its  place  as  the  mental  temper 
in  modern  culture.  But  slight  inspection  is  needed  to 
convince  us  that  the  ground  once  held  by  superstition  is 
now  occupied  by  partisan  opinion.  Just  as  in  ancient  days 
a  few  tall  spirits  discerned  great,  dominating  truths,  set 
in  a  narrow  horizon  of  intelligence,  so  now  a  compara- 
tively few  discriminate  the  solid  ground  of  verified  accu- 
racy from  the  quagmire  and  quicksands  of  opinion. 
Not  unfrequently  we  hear  the  most  valid  truths  ques- 
tioned, and  the  crudest  opinions  positively  asserted  ;  and 
how  rarely  found  is  he  who,  having  ascertained  real 
knowledge  in  one  department  of  thought,  is  wise  enough 
not  to  speak  oracularly  in  other,  though  unstudied  de- 
partments. It  is  much  more  easy  to  a  lazy,  dishonest, 
or  cowardly  man  to  accept  as  knowledge  the  assertions 


g  IN  TROD  UC  TION. 

of  smart  or  ponderous  opinion  than  to  undergo  a  pains- 
taking ascertainment  of  verities.  The  honesty  required 
in  the  search  for  truth  seems  as  rare  a  quality  now  as  in 
the  days  when  superstition  held  the  place  now  occupied 
by  flippant  opinion. 

Yes,  the  domination  of  superstition  is  past,  the  reign 
of  opinion  is  upon  us  ;  when  will  the  age  of  discrimina- 
tion come?  That  it  will  come  we  have  not  the  slightest 
doubt ;  that  it  has  more  representatives  now  than  in  any 
former  historical  period  is  quite  certain.  Perhaps  opin- 
ion is  the  transition  from  superstition  to  accuracy. 
Moral  honesty  has  long  been  held  as  the  rightful  rule  in 
action  ;  when  it  becomes  the  rule  in  thinking,  men  will 
demand  as  thorough  conscientiousness  in  forming,  as  in 
carrying  out  an  opinion.  Then  the  badge  of  intelligence 
will  be,  not  information,  but  discrimination.  Men  will 
not  ask  how  much  does  he  know,  but  how  well  does  he 
know  ?  Society  will  then  be  possessed  of  the  spirit  of 
accuracy,  as  now  by  that  of  novelty. 

How  little  honesty  there  is  in  the  world  is  seen  in  that 
but  few,  comparatively,  "  hold  fast  what  is  good,"  while  al- 
most none  "  prove  all  things."  It  is  only  half  of  honesty 
to  adhere  firmly  to  one's  belief;  the  other  and  better  half 
is  to  struggle  that  our  beliefs  be  correct.  To  this  lower 
stratum  of  honesty  comparatively  few  dig  down.  The 
surface  stratum  is  sufficient  for  popular  commendation. 

This  apotheosis  of  opinion  in  our  day  seems  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  state  of  things  among  the  Greeks  when 
Socrates  arose  in  mighty  protest  against  its  frivolity,  in 
the  time  of  the  Sophists.  Then,  as  now,  there  had  been 
the  failure  of  materialistic  philosophy ;  then,  as  now,  a 
reaction  from  superstition;  then,  as  now,  the  "popular 
rage  "  was  a  show  of  information,  readiness  to  talk  on  the 


IN  TROD  UC  TION.  g 

surface  of  any  subject.  Then,  as  now,  truth,  justice, 
and  good  were  regarded  as  mere  conventionalities,  while 
reality  was  thought  to  be  in  proportion  to  smartness  of 
individual  opinion.  No  better  description  of  many 
modern  leaders  of  popular  opinion  can  be  given  than 
Schwegler's  account  of  the  Greek  Sophists.     He  says  : 

"  The  Greek  Sophists,  like  the  French  illuminati  of  the 
last  century,  displayed  an  encyclopaedic  universality  of 
knowledge.  Their  relation  to  the  cultivated  public,  their 
striving  after  popularity,  notoriety,  and  pecuniary  emolu- 
ment suggests  the  inference  that  their  studies  and  activi- 
ties were,  for  the  most  part,  directed  and  determined,  not 
by  any  objective  scientific  interest,  but  by  external  consid- 
erations. Wandering  from  town  to  town  with  that  migra- 
tory tic  so  characteristic  of  the  later,  more  special  Sophists, 
announcing  themselves  as  thinkers  by  profession,  and  look- 
ing in  all  their  operation  mainly  to  good  pay  and  for  favor  of 
the  rich,  they  naturally  chose  questions  of  general  interest 
and  public  advantage,  though  at  times  also  the  private 
fancies  of  certain  men,  as  the  objects  of  their  discourse. 
Their  special  strength,  therefore,  lay  much  more  in  formal 
quickness,  in  subjective  displays  of  readiness  of  wit,  in  the 
art  of  being  able  to  rhetorize,  than  in  positive  knowledge. 
Their  only  instruction  in  morals  consisted  either  in  dispu- 
tatious word-catching  or  in  hollow  rhetorical  show ;  and 
even  when  their  information  rose  to  polymath y,  mere 
phrasing  on  the  subjects  remained  the  main  point.  We 
cannot  wonder  that  they  descended  in  this  respect  to  that 
empty  external  trickery  which  Plato,  in  the  '  Phcedrus,' 
subjects  to  so  keen  a  criticism,  and  specially  because  of 
its  want  of  seriousness  and  principle." 

Recognizing  the  retirement  of  superstition  and  opin- 
ion, and  the  advent  of  discrimination,  we  recognize  that 
one  of  the  first  suggestions  made  by  this  ruling  word  is 


IO  INTRODUCTION. 

the  correct  use  of  tests  of  truth.  Beliefs,  of  all  thought- 
ful times,  have  usually  been  cast  in  the  same  generic 
forms,  five  in  number.  These  five  forms  have  been 
termed  philosophies. 

In  the  railroad  switching-grounds  there  is  a  man  whose 
duty  it  is  to  move  a  bar  of  iron  the  space  of  two  or  three 
inches.  By  this  means  he  directs  one  train  upon  its 
course  to  San  Francisco,  another  toward  New  Orleans, 
or  another  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  Thus  the  philoso- 
pher operates  the  switch  in  the  mental  world,  and  largely 
determines  the  course  of  thought  throughout  the  net- 
work of  science,  literature,  politics,  law,  morals,  and 
manners.  A  mistake  at  the  switch  means  wreck  to  the 
train.  Failure  and  corruption  of  manners,  morals,  and 
government,  with  their  calamitous  results,  are  largely  due 
to  inaccuracies  of  thought  in  the  domain  of  philosophy. 

The  differences  between  the  five  forms  of  philosophic 
systems  depend  upon  what  each  takes  as  a  test  of  truth. 
It  is  therefore  of  no  avail  to  advocate  one  system  of 
belief  or  oppose  another  unless  a  reliable  test  of  truth 
is  ascertained.  If  I  take  the  senses  as  the  sole  test  of 
truth,  I  must  become  a  materialist,  sensationalist,  or 
positivist  with  Spinoza,  Mill,  and  Comte.  If  I  take 
the  intuitional  consciousness  or  feelings  as  the  only  test 
of  truth,  I  must  become  a  mystic  with  Boehm  and 
Schelling.  If,  again,  the  logical  consciousness  be  my 
only  test,  then,  with  Berkeley  or  Fichte,  I  must  dis- 
credit the  reality  of  all  external  things  and  be  an  ideal- 
ist. Or  as  an  eclectic  I  may  apply  the  tests  of  "  pro- 
gressive common-sense  "  and  thus  join  hands  with  Main, 
DeBiron,  Cousin,  and  Jouffroy.  Or  finally,  I  may  reject 
them  all  and  be  a  sceptic,  with  Pyrrho  in  ancient,  Hume 
and  De  Maistre  in  modern  times.     These  old  schools 


INTROD  UCTION.  x  j 

of  philosophy  have  wrangled  for  centuries,  but  the  only 
outcome  is  to  make  belief  a  matter  of  choice.  The 
adopting  one  class  of  truth-tests  to  the  exclusion  of 
others  is  the  vitiating  germ  of  each  system  !  But  may 
we  not  find  valid  tests  of  truth  upon  which  to  found  true 
"all-around  "  philosophy,  and  abiding  knowledge? 

That  self-evidence  is  the  ultimate  test  of  truth  goes 
almost  without  saying,  but  the  validity  of  the  means  by 
which  self-evidence  is  recognized  is  the  disturbing  ques- 
tion. When  a  thing  is  seen  to  be  self-evident  we  cannot 
ignore  its  truth,  without  conscious  mental  or  moral 
degradation.  But  how  may  we  practically  come  at 
things  so  that  their  self-evidence  may  appear?  The 
means  by  which  self-evidence  is  recognized  are,  then, 
the 

Practical  Tests  of  Truth.  —  We  may  safely  say  that 
the  organ  or  faculty  through  which  knowledge  is  gained 
is,  in  a  general  way,  the  test  of  the  correctness  of  that 
knowledge.  The  difference  in  sounds  cannot  be  de- 
cided by  the  eye,  but  by  the  ear.  The  sense  of  smell 
cannot  discriminate  colors;  this  must  be  done  by  the 
eye.  In  like  manner  the  correctness  of  perceptions  and 
relations  must  be  tested  by  the  reason ;  and  the  facts 
of  personal  identity,  freedom,  and  moral  sense  can  only 
be  known  through  the  intuitional  consciousness. 

Then  we  say  that  the  practical  tests  of  truth  are 
of  two  classes,  generally  termed  consciousness  and  the 
senses,  —  when  applied  in  departments  of  knowledge  in 
which  severally  they  are  the  organs  of  knowing  ;  not 
otherwise.  The  old  wrangle  of  materialism,  for  exam- 
ple, arose  from  taking  the  senses  as  the  only  test  of 
truth;  and  because  personal  identity,  free  will,  moral 
obligation,  or  God  could  not  be  tested  by  the  senses, 


I2  INTRODUCTION. 

these  truths  were  questioned  or  denied.  This  is  the 
whole  gist  of  the  infidelity  vented  by  rhetoricians  and 
second-hand  thinkers,  who  do  not  discriminate  suffi- 
ciently to  know  what  is  the  pother.  The  idealists,  on  the 
other  hand,  taking  the  logical  consciousness  as  the  only 
test  of  truth,  could  not  affirm  objects  of  sense.  Thus 
these  two  schools  shoved  each  other  out  of  existence. 
Each  denied  the  existence  of  what  the  other  was  sure. 

Right  application  of  truth-tests  is  the  way  of  escape 
from  these  indeterminate  systems.  It  consists  in  (i)  the 
application  of  the  testimony  of  the  senses  in  verifying 
knowledge  externally  derived;  (2)  the  test  of  con- 
sciousness in  mental  or  spiritual  phenomena;  (3)  the 
agreement  or  mutual  corroboration  of  these  where  both 
classes  of  phenomena  are  concerned. 

Admitting  this  to  be  a  true  putting  of  the  case,  how 
can  I  be  certain  that  these  tests  are  valid  in  their  re- 
spective spheres?  We  answer:  (1)  Only  by  their  use 
can  we  acquire  knowledge  ;  (2)  They  are  felt  and  acted 
upon  as  necessary  and  final  by  all  men ;  (3)  Without 
them  there  can  be  no  progress.  Art,  industries,  and 
sciences  could  never  have  been  achieved  except  by  this 
use  of  them.  The  progress  of  the  world  has  been  in 
spite  of  the  old  philosophies,  which  abused  these  tests 
by  misapplication.  Instinctively,  or  as  a  matter  of 
course,  men  accept  truth  as  it  appears  self-evident,  — 
through  the  senses  on  the  physical  side,  or  to  the  inner 
consciousness  on  the  spiritual  side ;  and  where  self- 
evidence  arises  from  mutual  corroboration  of  both  sides 
the  result  is  felt  to  be  demonstration.  If  disagreement 
arise  as  between  these  poles  of  truth,  it  simply  leads 
to  the  detection  of  inaccuracy  in  the  perception  of 
original  facts. 


IN  TROD  UC  T10N.  x  3 

But  now  comes  up  the  question,  Are  these  criteria 
of  knowledge  real?  That  is  to  say,  these  tests  decide 
what  is  true  to  us,  but,  if  we  were  otherwise  constructed, 
might  not  truth  be  other  than  what  we  find  it  to  be  ? 
Or,  in  other  words,  how  can  we  know  that  what  con- 
forms to  our  consciousness  and  sense  is  truth,  indepen- 
dent of  our  structure  ?  We  answer :  Science,  arts,  and 
industries  projected  and  carried  out  in  accordance  with 
these  tests,  yet  having  for  their  subject-matter  things 
and  forces  outside  and  independent  of  our  structure, 
nevertheless  result  successfully ;  that  is,  bring  about 
progress.  Substantial  progress  is  a  practical  test  of 
tests.  The  law  of  gravitation  and  our  consciousness  of 
mathematical  relations  are  true  among  the  stars.  A  few 
years  ago  the  planet  Uranus  was  supposed  to  bound  the 
solar  system  with  his  orbit,  but  his  wabblings  were 
eccentric  beyond  what,  according  to  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation, could  be  accounted  for  by  the  influence  of 
known  bodies.  Hence,  astronomers  believed  there 
must  be  some  large,  unknown  body  hovering  beyond 
Uranus  and  thus  affecting  him.  No  telescope,  however, 
had  as  yet  discovered  such  disturbing  force.  Where- 
upon Leverrier  set  about  reducing,  by  mathematical 
calculation,  the  excesses  of  Uranus  to  definite  mental 
conceptions  ;  and  upon  these  conceptions  of  the  logical 
consciousness  he  determined  at  what  point  in  the 
heavens  the  unknown  but  disturbing  influence  should 
be  located  at  a  given  time.  By  his  direction  the 
observatories  turned  their  telescopes  upon  that  point, 
and  at  the  designated  moment  the  hitherto  undiscovered 
planet  moved  into  plain  view  of  the  observers.  Thus 
the  rational  consciousness  of  Leverrier,  conspiring  with 
data  furnished  upon  the  testimony  of  the  senses,  "  de- 


I4  INTRODUCTION. 

tected  the  silent  footsteps  of  Neptune  as  he  trod  the 
solitudes  of  immensity."  Thus,  it  is  evident,  these 
tests  are  valid,  not  only  in  us,  but  in  the  existing 
structure  of  the  physical  universe  about  us.  They  are, 
therefore,  the  practical  tests  of  truth. 

Admitting,  now,  that  these  tests  yield  certitude  in  the 
relative  universe,  —  that  is,  the  truth  as  it  is  embodied 
in  the  structure  of  all  dependent  or  relative  existence,  — 
may  the  practical  truth,  as  ascertained,  be  affirmed  as 
identical,  or  in  harmony  with  absolute  truth ;  is  truth 
in  man  one  with  truth  in  God?  This  is  one  of  the 
weightiest  questions  of  speculative  philosophy.  German 
philosophy,  following  Kant,  held  that  no  such  affirmation 
can  be  made.  The  philosophy  of  the  conditioned,  as 
expounded  by  Hamilton  and  Mansel  in  Great  Britain, 
followed  on  the  same  line ;  and  the  sensational 
philosophy  of  Mill  suggested  that  "  there  may  be 
worlds  in  which  two  and  two  make  five." 

Of  the  tests  we  have  named,  manifestly  none  can 
be  brought  to  bear  on  this  question  except  pure  reason, 
the  rational,  or  logical  consciousness,  —  unless  by 
revelation  it  might  be  submitted  to  the  other  tests.  How 
much  and  what  can  reason  decide  on  this  question? 
We  answer :  — 

i.  That  the  existing  constitution  of  things  harmonizes 
with  absolute  truth  is,  at  least,  probable. 

2.  This  existing  structure  has  the  binding  force  of 
absolute  truth  until  an  opposite  system  is  demonstrated. 

3.  The  rational  conception  of  truth  is  this  :  Truth  is 
the  rational  system  which  may  be  explicated  from  an 
ideal  or  a  perfect  thing.  "  Absolute  truth "  is  only 
another  name  for  the  infinite  ideal ;  hence,  to  suppose 
that  there  might  be  opposite  or  inharmonious  systems  of 


INTROD  UC TION.  j  - 

truth  is  to  suppose  other  than  one  infinite  ideal,  which, 
of  course,  is  absurd  and  impossible. 

Hence,  the  truths  which  are  implied  in  "  the  existing 
structure  "  are  affirmations  of  absolute  truth  and  must  be 
regarded  as  the  essential  implications  of  being. 


part  fttjst 


IMPLICATIONS   OF  BEING. 


Love  is  something  more  than  the  desire  of  beauty.  .  .  .  He 
who  has  the  instinct  of  true  love,  and  can  discern  the  relations 
of  true  beauty  in  every  form,  will  go  on  from  strength  to  strength 
until  at  last  the  vision  is  revealed  to  him  of  a  single  science,  and 
he  will  suddenly  perceive  a  nature  of  wondrous  beauty,  in  the 
likeness  of  no  human  face  or  form,  but  absolute,  simple,  separate, 
and  everlasting.  —  Socrates. 


THE   EVOLUTION    OF   LOVE. 


CHAPTER   I. 

BEING,    AS    PERCEIVED. 

Most  ignorant  of  what  he  's  most  assured,  —  Shakspeare. 

"  The  Evolution  of  Love  "is  a  brief  outline  of  our 
conception  of  Being,  infinite  and  finite.  It  is  offered, 
modestly,  we  hope,  though  confidently,  as  a  self-sustain- 
ing system  which  arises  naturally  upon  the  mind  when 
freed  from  imposing  preconceptions.  It  offers  a  view  of 
being  which,  better  than  any  we  have  hitherto  found, 
shows  the  meaning  of  human  life,  duty,  and  destiny, 
furnishes  a  ground-plan  upon  which  other  knowledge  and 
culture  maybe  built,  in  right  relation  and  just  signifi- 
cance, and  renders  the  heart  more  susceptible  to  those 
motives  which  alone  can  make  "  life  worth  living."  It 
is  a  conception  which,  we  believe,  affords  clear  vision 
both  to  thought  and  faith,  and  exposes  the  unworthiness 
of  that  bigotry  which  antagonizes  reason  in  the  name 
of  faith,  and  that  charlatanry  which  antagonizes  faith 
in  the  name  of   reason. 

It  is  important  to  place  ourselves  in  a  favorable  at- 
titude to  receive  truth  ;  an  attitude  at  once  humble  and 
hopeful.     Humility  may  free  us  from  false  assumptions 


20  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

and  the  pretentiousness  of  acquired  lore.  Hope  may  re- 
lieve us  from  dread  of  that  sanctimonious  mystifying  by 
which  crudity  silences  inquiry  ;  and  both  may  give  scope 
to  faith  and  culture,  which  have  been  cramped  by  inade- 
quate, but  cherished  systems. 

That  our  use  of  terms  should  be  the  plainest  and 
clearest  at  command  is  desirable,  though  we  admit,  in 
advance,  that  the  defects  of  the  writer,  the  nature  of  the 
inquiry,  and  the  brevity  of  this  brochure  may  impose,  at 
times,  a  difficult  terminology.  As  no  small  proportion 
of  our  labor  preliminary  to  this  writing  has  been  to 
clear  our  way  of  the  rubbish  of  old  argumentation,  we 
shall  not  unnecessarily  encumber  ourselves  with  its 
terms.  The  best  we  can  do  with  many  of  them  is 
to  forget  them.  Nor  shall  we  exhibit  the  metaphys- 
ical struggle  of  the  clearing  process,  but  simply  attempt 
to  outline  the  resulting  conception.  We  have  sought, 
at  all  hazards,  a  clear  view  of  the  truth,  freed  from  the 
shirking  and  shifting  of  partisan  statement ;  the  shrine 
where,  in  moral  purity,  logical  accuracy,  and  emotional 
bliss,  the   soul  may  find   rest. 

The  method  of  this  book  is  very  simple.  It  is  merely 
to  recognize  facts  and  what  they  unavoidably  imply,  — 
the  method  by  which  mankind  have  about  all  their 
abiding  knowledge.  This  method  is  intolerant  of 
surmises,  plausible  fancies,  and  "legal  fictions."  We 
find,  too,  but  little  use  even  for  probabilities,  but  hold 
ourselves  amenable  to  the  question,  What  must  be 
thought ;  what  does  reason  require  ? 

Facts  are  enacted  realities.  Truths  include,  beside 
facts,  the  relation  of  facts  and  their  inferences,  but  it  is 
with  facts  as  distinguished  from  other  forms  of  truth  we 
would  chiefly  deal.     Fact,  in  our  use  of  the  term,  in- 


BEING,  AS  PERCEIVED.  21 

eludes  enacted  realities,  both  perceived  and  implied. 
Facts  which  we  directly  perceive  imply  other  facts  which 
we  cannot  perceive,  but  which  the  mind  recognizes,  and 
we  must  accept  along  with  the  perceived  facts,  in  order 
that  the  latter  may  be  intelligible.  Otherwise  the  per- 
ception must  be  surrendered,  which  is  to  surrender 
knowledge.  For  example,  here  are  two  bodies,  one 
living,  the  other  dead ;  so  termed  because  motion,  the 
evidence  of  life,  is  perceived  in  one,  but  not  in  the 
other.  But  the  perception  of  this  evidence  is  not  the 
perception  of  the  fact  we  term  life.  Life  is  the  chief 
fact  which  differentiates  the  two  bodies,  but  it  is  a  fact 
that  cannot  be  perceived.  It  is  an  implied  fact  which 
must  be  accepted  with  the  perceived  facts,  or  these 
bodies  cannot  be  thought  of  either  as  living  or  dead. 
If  it  be  not  accepted,  then  the  perceived  motions  signify 
nothing  as  to  life  or  death  ;  and  knowledge  of  such 
things  must  be  given  up.  But  such  folly  regarding  life 
is  not  found  among  men,  though  it  is  often  manifested 
regarding  implied  facts  of  another  class.  All  recognize 
and  act  upon  the  implied  fact,  life,  though  it  eludes 
perception  armed  with  scalpel  and  microscope.  All 
treasure  it  as  antecedent  to  all  that  is  precious  in  its 
perceived  manifestations.  "A  dog,  living,  is  better  than 
a  lion,  dead  !  " 

As  thus  recognized,  life  is  not  merely  a  quality  or  a 
relation  or  an  inference,  but  an  enacted  reality,  or  fact, 
implied  in  the  beating  pulse  and  heaving  chest.  The 
questions  of  whether  and  how  pulse  and  breathing  evince 
life,  are  matters  of  relation  and  inference,  but  the  thing, 
life,  is  thought  as  a  fact.  This  implied  fact  is  of  far 
greater  importance  than  the  perceived  facts  which 
evince  its  presence  \  it  is  the  enacted  reality  on  which 


22  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

they  depend.  Perceived  facts  are  but  the  declarations 
of  their  implied  meanings,  and  are  worthless  for  knowl- 
edge  when  isolated  from  them  in  thought. 

Implication  is  but  a  term  which  comprehends  all  facts, 
relations,  and  inferences  which  must  be  thought  in 
connection  with  admitted  perceptions ;  hence,  implied 
facts,  as  well  as  perceived  ones,  are  essential  data  in  prac- 
tical affairs,  as  well  as  in  constructing  a  rational  system. 
For  data  which  we  think  and  use  as  fact  enter  into  our 
knowledge,  as  fact  with  equal  strength  and  validity 
whether  they  be  perceived  by  consciousness  or  sense  or 
come  by  implication.  Physical  science,  that  boasts  its 
basis  of  fact,  could  not  subsist  as  science,  with  all  its  store 
of  perceived  facts,  but  for  its  chief  fact,  force,  which 
is  supplied  only  by  implication.  Only  by  the  facts 
which  they  imply  can  perceived  data  be  built  into 
science.  We  may  term  them  truths  or  principles,  but  it 
is  our  use  of  them  as  facts  which  enables  us  to  construct 
science. 

It  cannot  be  affirmed  that  in  perceiving  material  ob- 
jects we  really  perceive  all  their  properties,  nor  can  it 
be  claimed  that  all,  or  even  many,  of  the  phenomena  of 
mental  operations  are  noted  by  consciousness.  Enough, 
however,  are  perceived  to  enforce  definite  discrimination 
of  one  material  or  mental  fact  from  others  ;  hence,  when 
it  is  said  we  perceive  a  fact,  it  is  this  definite  discrimi- 
nation which  is  meant,  not  a  perception  of  all  that  the 
fact  contains.  And,  in  the  case  of  implied  facts,  it  is 
not  claimed  that  they  force  upon  our  recognition  more 
than  what  distinguishes  them  as  definite  facts. 

These  facts  of  implication  may  draw  after  them  other, 
even  a  whole  train  of  implications,  and  so  may  give  us 
a  well-defined  conception  of  an  object  which  is  not  in 


BEING,  AS  PERCEIVED. 


23 


any  way  open  to  perception ;  hence  there  are  objects 
perceived,  and  objects  co?iceived.  The  latter  may  be 
greater  in  every  way  than  the  former,  but  our  apprehen- 
sion of  them  can  arise  only  in  connection  with  what  is 
perceived.  Hence,  in  attempting  to  trace  the  evolution 
of  love,  we  must  begin  with  some  perceived  fact,  or 
facts,  which  must  imply  the  facts  and  conditions  of  such 
evolution.  If  in  the  tangled  morass  of  ignorance  and 
doubt,  termed  human  life,  we  can  perceive  a  solid  bank 
of  fact  from  which  to  spring  an  arch  that  by  its  self- 
sustaining  coherence  may  lift  its  extending  curve  until 
it  rests  firmly  upon  the  shore  of  destiny,  let  us  not  mourn 
the  structures  which  have  fallen.  Nay,  better,  if  such 
arch  already  exists,  and  our  task  is  but  to  locate  it  and 
try  its  firmness,  not  too  soon  can  we  set  about  the  work. 
If  such  firm  structure  exists,  it  must  be  found  in  the 
implications  of  our  being,  and  the  base  from  which 
these  implications  are  projected  can  only  be  "Being, 
as  perceived." 

Perception  is  knowing.  The  question  upon  which 
many  differences  have  arisen  among  philosophers  is 
really  this  :  What  is  perceived  ?  Connected  with  this 
are  other  questions  :  What  is  necessarily  implied  in  the 
things  perceived?  and  what  is  merely  apparent,  or  at 
most  but  possibly  implied  ?  It  were  a  weary  and  worth- 
less task  to  point  out  all  the  theories  which  have  been 
wrought  from  different  views  of  these  questions,  hence 
it  will  not  be  attempted  here.  Let  us  be  content  with 
what  all  are  compelled  to  admit,  with  what  is  perforce 
common  ground,  namely,  that  within  ourselves  we  have 
the  direct  perception  of  being.  This  much,  at  least,  is 
reality.  We  do  not  have  this  perception  of  each  other, 
but  each  for  himself,  alone,  knows  himself  as  being, 


24 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


He  may  from  this  perception  infer  that  there  are  other 
beings,  but  he  knows,  positively  and  directly,  one ;  and 
that  is  himself.  He  does  not  know  how  he  can  be  as 
he  is,  but  simply  perceives  directly  that  he  is.  This 
knowledge  he  cannot  deny,  he  does  and  must  directly 
perceive  it,  it  is  his  perceiving  self ;  he  perceives  him- 
self as  perceiving. 

Sensational  philosophy  has  tried  to  show  that  this 
self-conscious  action  results  from  sensations  externally 
given.  But  this  is  an  attempt  to  show  how  we  are  as 
we  are,  but  it  does  not  account  for  the  fact  of  a  per- 
ceiving agent  by  whom  the  sensations  are  known.  At 
best,  this  philosophy  can  only  locate  the  perceiving  agent 
in  the  sensations,  and  thus  require  the  sensations  to  per- 
ceive themselves.  But  in  this  move  it  does  not  get  rid 
of  a  conscious  actor,  or  the  reality  of  being.  Besides, 
when  the  past  and  now  impossible  sensations  are,  in 
memory,  called  up  and  reflected  upon,  this  philosophy 
has  no  sensation  to  which  this  recollection  and  reflec- 
tion may  be  attributed.  The  self-centred  being  who 
consciously  perceives  sensation,  recalls  sense-perceptions 
after  the  sensations  have  ceased,  reflects  upon  them, 
often  acts  emotionally  and  volitionally  concerning  them, 
and  perceives  himself  as  so  acting,  is  the  one  being 
whom  I  directly  know.  Thus  the  fact  of  being  comes 
to  me  as  direct  and  unavoidable  knowledge.  It  is  the 
first,  deepest,  and  broadest  of  perceived  facts. 

This  knowledge  is  knowledge  of  action  ;  action  which 
knows  itself  only  in  action.  The  act  of  knowing  itself  is 
consciousness,  or  self-perception.  The  absence  of  ac- 
tion is,  hence,  the  absence  of  knowing,  and  for  aught 
I  know,  the  absence  of  being.  If  there  are  beings 
without  action,  I  know  nothing  of  them,  inasmuch  as  I 


BEING,  AS  PERCEIVED.  2r 

know  myself  only  as  acting,  others  by  reaction  and  in- 
teraction, but  have  no  evidence  of  my  own  or  any  other's 
being,  save  action. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  the  foundation  of  all  knowledge 
of  reality  is  the  fact  of  my  individual  action.  Stripped 
of  everything  of  which  I  cannot  know  the  reality,  this 
stands  out,  a  definite,  conscious  power.  This  is  Being, 
as  perceived. 

The  term  "being"  does  not,  then,  stand  for  an  ab- 
straction which  some  have  styled  "pure  being."  An 
abstraction  is  nothing,  and  nothing  can  come  out  of  it. 
An  acting,  determining  thing  can  alone  be  a  real  being. 
Self-perceiving  action,  conscious  power,  can  in  no  way 
be  questioned,  avoided,  or  spirited  away.  Nothing  but 
annihilation  can  rid  me  of  it.  All  efforts  to  avoid,  or 
call  it  in  question  are  only  attempted  re-locations,  —  re- 
locations in  sensations  of  assumed  external  origin. 

"The  science  of  being,"  Ontology,  properly  begins 
with  this  known  reality,  and  proceeds  to  trace  its  im- 
plications and  recognize  the  questions  it  raises.  The 
mind,  or  soul,  as  I  know  it,  is  this  conscious  power,  an 
acting  unit.  If  asked,  "What  is  mind-substance?"  the 
only  answer  I  can  give  or  need  to  give,  is  "power," 
that  which  acts.  I  confidently  give  this  answer,  because 
this  power  knows  itself  as  action,  knows  itself  as  enacted 
reality,  a  constant  fact.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  ask  a 
man  "  how  he  knows  he  has  a  soul,"  for  the  only  thing 
it  is  impossible  for  him  not  to  know  is  that  he  is  a  soul ; 
and  this  nothing  but  annihilation,  non-being,  can  prevent 
his  knowing. 

But  there  could  be  no  science  of  being  were  this  the 
only  fact  that  could  be  known  of  being.  For,  when  I 
attempt  to  think  of  the  general  fact  of  being,  I  am  shut 


26  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

up  to  one  view,  namely :  I  am  a  self-existent  being. 
Existence  implies  self-existence,  somewhere ;  and,  self- 
sustained  being  is  a  fact  given  in  the  perceived  fact  of 
being ;  and,  if  I  know  nothing  to  the  contrary,  I  am  that 
self-existent  one.  But  when  I  think  further,  that  a  self- 
existent  being  must  be  independent,  then  I  must  infer 
that  I  am  independent.  But  I  find,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
I  am  not  independent,  and  therefore  am  not  self-exist- 
ent. So,  thought  is  confounded  and  brought  to  naught 
unless  other  facts  of  being  may  be  known.  Such  knowl- 
edge, to  be  valid  for  me,  must  come  in  the  conscious 
action  which  I  know  as  myself;  hence,  I  search  myself 
for  further  facts. 

The  nature,  as  well  as  the  fact,  of  the  being  whom  I 
know  and  each  knows  for  himself  is  also  given  in  our 
conscious  action.  That  is  to  say,  we  are  conscious  of 
an  order  of  action  in  our  being.  This  order  is  what  I 
recognize  as  the  nature  of  the  agent,  myself.  For  exam- 
ple, I  know  myself  as  acting  in  self-perceiving,  in  sense- 
perceiving,  in  reasoning,  feeling,  intending,  choosing, 
doing,  etc.  Hence,  I  say  it  is  my  nature  to  perceive, 
reason,  feel,  to  will,  to  do.  Moreover,  I  know  that  in 
most,  if  not  all,  of  these  classes,  or  orders,  my  action  is 
limited,  and  hence  know  I  am  not  only  a  causal  power, 
but  know  that  this  order  and  limitation  are  imposed  upon 
my  actions,  giving  me  the  knowledge  that  I  am  depend- 
ent, —  dependent  upon  conditions. 

The  persons  may  be  few  who  logically  define  or 
describe  this  nature ;  its  various  classes  of  action  may 
not  be  clearly  or  similarly  traced  by  different  thinkers ; 
nevertheless,  all  men  alike  have  these  classes  of  action, 
and  know  themselves  as  thus  acting ;  and  equally  well 
experience   the   conditions   which    limit    their    action. 


BEING,  AS  PERCEIVED.  2~ 

Doubtless  all  men,  equally  well,  know  themselves  as 
limited,  dependent. 

Dependent  being  is  the  reality  which  I  perceive.  That 
there  must  have  been  a  time  when  I  did  not  exist,  that 
there  are  places  where  I  do  not  and  cannot  exist, 
that  I  cannot  perceive  anything  except  as  conditioned 
by  time  or  space,  that  my  knowledge  is  limited  to  action 
within  myself  and  what  is  presented  to  me  by  sensation, 
that  my  volitions  are  carried  out  by  means  of  reaction 
and  interaction  with  forces  external  to  me,  which  con- 
dition their  efficiency,  I  am  forced  to  recognize  in  my 
knowledge  of  my  own  being.  Limitation  is  as  surely 
known  to  me  as  is  being. 

The  order  of  my  action,  termed  my  "  nature,"  gives 
me,  first,  self-perception,  or  consciousness.  This  fixes  my 
knowledge  of  individual  identity.  This  individual  iden- 
tity abides  unmoved  through  all  the  changes  of  feeling 
and  thought  which  I  undergo,  and  all  the  varied  sense- 
perceptions  and  volitions  I  perform.  Whatever  changes 
have  taken  place  in  my  physique,  actions,  feelings,  or 
states  of  knowledge,  this  has  remained  unchanged.  My 
deepest,  clearest,  and  permanent  perception  of  my  being 
is  as  an  individual  unit. 

I  perceive  also,  in  what  is  termed  "  sense-perception," 
that  there  are  activities  or  forces  other  than  mine  which 
affect  me,  —  that  change  my  states  of  knowledge  and 
modify  my  feelings  and  activities.  These  give  sharp 
discrimination  to  myself  as  limited  by  externality.  Ex- 
ternality as  here  recognized  is  not  an  empty  abstraction, 
such  as  the  " non-ego"  of  Fichte,  or  the  "not-me"  of 
certain  other  writers,  but  forces  which  impose  upon  me 
the  knowledge  of  reaction  and  interaction,  —  knowledge 
that  I  am  acted  upon. 


28  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

In  some  classes  of  my  action  I  know  myself  as  simply 
recognizing  and  interpreting,  but  not  originating,  the 
action  recognized.  For  example,  consciousness,  or  self- 
perception,  is  but  a  recognition  of  the  fact,  my  being ; 
but  the  action  which  establishes  and  maintains  the  con- 
ditions of  my  being,  I  do  not  perceive ;  it  is  not  my 
action.  In  sense-perception  my  action  is  simply  recog- 
nizing and  interpreting  sensations  of  sight,  sound,  odor, 
taste,  and  touch.  In  reason  I  compare  perceptions,  note 
their  likenesses  and  differences,  and  draw  conclusions 
from  such  comparison.  The  act  of  comparing  is  my 
act ;  but  the  action  which  gives  likeness  and  difference  to 
the  things  perceived,  and  fixes  the  forms  in  which  I  must 
know  and  compare  them  is  independent  of  me.  In  like 
manner,  the  sense  of  moral  authority  is  imposed  upon 
me,  sometimes  much  against  my  desires,  yet  my  action 
regarding  its  rise  within  me  is  but  that  of  recognition 
and  interpretation.  In  all  these  modes  of  action  I  know 
myself  as  but  recognizing  and  interpreting  that  which  I 
do  not  posit  or  cause.  Thus,  my  nature  is  known  by 
me  as  a  self-evident  effect,  dependent  upon  forces  which 
evince  themselves  as  external  to  myself,  the  agent  who 
recognizes  and  interprets  them. 

It  is  not  claimed  here  that  my  interpretation  of  exter- 
nality discovers  the  nature  of  the  external,  but  simply 
the  fact  of  its  existence.  But  this  fact  is  as  directly 
known  in  my  acts  of  recognition  and  interpretation  as 
the  fact  of  my  being.  The  interpreting  act  is  part  of 
my  action ;  and  the  fact  that  I  know  this  action  to  be 
merely  recognition  and  interpretation  fixes  upon  me  the 
knowledge  that  I  am  in  interaction  with  and  dependent 
upon  some  external  action  which  founds  me.  Hence, 
I  know  my  nature  is  that  of  an  mdividua/,  but  dependent 
power. 


BEING,  AS  PERCEIVED. 


29 


But  though  the  knowledge  of  myself  is  that  of  a  de- 
pendent power,  it  alone  gives  me  the  general  fact  of 
existence.  It  is  impossible  to  take  up  the  thought  of 
existence  without  implying  self-existence.  Nor  do  I 
derive  this  implication  as  an  inference  from  my  own 
causal  power,  but  it  is  directly  given  in  the  fact  of  being. 
My  direct  knowledge  of  my  being  is  that  of  simple  self- 
existence,  but  it  is  modified  by  the  further  perception  of 
my  dependent  nature. 

A  discrepancy  arises  here  between  two  perceived 
facts,  —  namely,  simple  being  and  dependent  being,  to 
the  atheist  an  impassable  gulf.  I  cannot  by  any  possi- 
bility entertain  the  idea  of  existence  without  including  in 
that  idea  a  self-existent  energy.  Self-sustained  existence 
is  necessarily  in  the  general  notion  of  existence.  No 
matter  how  far  backward  I  may  suppose  a  series  of 
dependent  beings  to  extend,  the  notion  of  being  is  not 
filled  out  unless  I  find  a  self-dependent  actor  who  more 
than  merely  recognizes  and  interprets  his  own  being  and 
nature.  I  must  find  action  somewhere  which  exists  of 
itself,  and  founds  its  own  order  of  action.  The  self- 
perceived  being,  myself,  whom  I  know  as  dependent, 
does  not  satisfy  the  notion  of  self-existence  which  is 
given  with  it.  Though  all  limited  beings  stand  along- 
side me,  each  knowing  himself  an  acting  reality,  and 
though  the  number  were  indefinitely  multiplied  and  the 
reality  of  their  existence  demonstrated  to  me,  yet  all 
these  fail  to  fill  out  the  thought  of  self-existence  which 
it  is  impossible  to  drop  from  the  perceived  fact  of  exist- 
ence. Thus,  though  the  being  whom  I  directly  perceive 
is  dependent,  the  general  fact  of  being,  thus  known,  is 
impossible  to  thought  without  independence.  The  fact 
of  my  being  is  seen  to  be  impossible  without  implying 


30  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

its  dependence  upon  an  independent  being.  There  is 
no  difficulty  in  thinking  of  self-existence,  once  the  fact 
of  any  existence  is  perceived ;  it  cannot  be  avoided. 
We  cannot  get  rid  of  it.  But  the  real  difficulty  is  to 
think  how  any  being  came  to  be.  This  "  how,"  which 
is  impossible  to  solve,  lies  outside  of  human  inquiry ;  but 
however  impossible  it  is  to  know  how  being  is,  the  fact 
that  it  is,  is  the  most  unquestionable  of  all  facts. 

A  bright  young  girl  in  Sunday-school  said  to  her 
teacher,  "  Somehow  I  do  not  get  hold  of  the  idea  of  an 
independent,  or  self-existent  being." 

The  teacher  replied  :  "  You  are  perfectly  sure  of  your 
own  existence?" 

"  I  certainly  am." 

"  You  are  sure  you  are  a  dependent  being  ?  " 

"  Yes,  surely." 

"  Can  you  get  hold  of  the  idea  of  the  dependence  of 
all  being?" 

"  No  ;  it  is  impossible." 

"Then  being  must  be  independent  somewhere?" 

"  Yes,  certainly,  I  see  the  fact  of  being  must,  some- 
where, stand  alone ;  and  that  must  be  independent 
being." 

"Then,  having  the  fact  of  being,  given  in  your  own 
being,  it  cannot  be  doubted ;  and  the  implied  fact  of 
independent  being,  which  cannot  be  separated  from  it, 
is  equally  free  from  doubt?" 

"  Yes ;  I  see  the  fact  of  an  independent  being  is  given 
in  the  simple  fact  of  being,  which  I  perceive  in  myself." 

"But  a  little  further.  You  say  you  are  certain  you 
are  a  dependent  being  ?  " 

"  I  certainly  am." 

"  How  do  you  know  that  fact  ?  " 


BEING,  AS  PERCEIVED.  ^1 

"  I  perceive  it  in  my  nature." 

"  But  can  you  think  of  dependence  without  implying 
an  independent  upon  which  it  finally  depends  ?  " 

"  I  cannot." 

"  Then  you  perceive  two  distinct  facts,  being  and  de- 
pendence, in  each  of  which  is  given  the  fact  of  independent 
being." 

That  I  cannot  perceive  the  independent  actor  is 
nothing  as  against  the  fact  of  such  actor ;  I  am  unable 
to  perceive  any  actor  but  myself.  Hence  the  implied 
fact  of  an  independent  being  is  not  placed  in  doubt 
by  my  inability  to  perceive  it.  But  on  the  other  hand, 
the  implied  fact,  independent  being,  is  all  that  can  be 
thought  from  the  two  perceived  facts,  —  namely,  my  be- 
ing and  my  dependence.  Nor  can  one  or  the  other  of 
these  perceived  facts  be  thought,  any  more  than  the 
two  jointly,  without  implying  independent  being  as  a 
fact.  This  I  must  accept,  or  strangle  thought  at  its 
birth. 

To  a  theistic  conclusion  the  line  of  thought  from  this 
point  is  short,  direct,  and  decisive.  Perceived  dependent 
being  implies  an  independent ;  independent  being  is 
perfectly  self-determining ;  self-determination  is  person- 
ality ;  and  perfect,  or  infinite,  self-determination  is  infinite 
personality ;  hence  the  independent  is  the  perfect,  infi- 
nite or  unconditioned  person,  God. 

This  is  not  claimed  to  be  a  demonstration,  but  is 
claimed  as  the  only  view  possible  to  thought ;  and  since 
it  shuts  us  up  to  the  alternative  of  accepting  theism  or 
wholly  renouncing  thought,  it  has  all  the  argumentative 
force  of  demonstration.  We  must  resign  thought  and 
play  the  fool,  if  in  heart  we  say  there  is  no  God. 

While  the  atheist  can  adduce  no  evidence  to  prove 


32  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

there  is  no  God,  he  queries,  What  is  the  origin  of  God  ? 
But  this  is  not  the  whole  question.  The  real  question 
is,  "  How  does  being  come  to  exist  ?  "  To  this  question 
of  how,  human  thought  can  give  no  answer ;  yet  the  fact 
of  being  is  the  first,  largest,  and  surest  of  all  facts,  —  a 
fact  which  we  all  perceive.  This  perceived  fact  has  in  it 
the  implied  fact  which  cannot  be  gotten  rid  of,  and  with- 
out which  the  perceived  fact  of  being  is  unintelligible  ; 
namely,  that  being  is  at  some  point  self-existent,  inde- 
pendent. I  perceive  the  general  fact,  being,  in  perceiving 
myself;  and  this  general  fact  cannot  be  thought  except 
as  self-existent,  yet  it  must  be  accepted  as  perceived,  — 
a  known  fact. 

As  being  is  at  some  point  or  in  some  mode  self- 
existent,  it  is  independent,  —  that  is,  unconditioned,  — 
and  hence  perfectly  self-determined.  Perfect  self-deter- 
mination is  infinite  freedom,  infinite  self-determination ; 
and  this  is  an  infinite  person. 

Hence,  atheism  is  not  a  debatable  question.  It  has 
no  standing-ground  in  thought,  but  is  the  renuncia- 
tion of  thought.  Between  the  theist  and  the  atheist 
the  question  is  :  Thought,  or  no  thought,  —  reason,  or 
folly  ?  Thought,  contemplating  the  fact  being,  has  self- 
existent,  independent  being  on  its  hands.  The  only  way 
to  get  rid  of  it  is  to  resign  thought,  abnegate  reason. 

Agnosticism  is  the  rejection  of  theism  because  God,  as 
God,  is  not  perceived  by  us.  The  blunder  of  agnosticism 
is  in  looking  for  this  fact  in  the  range  of  perception,  in- 
stead of  in  the  realm  of  implied  fact.  It  overlooks  that 
God  is  an  unavoidable  implication  forced  upon  reason 
by  the  perceived  fact  of  being. 

Pantheism  is  not  so  readily  disposed  of  for  the  reason 
that  it  has  apparently   more    ground   than   atheism   or 


BEING,  AS  PERCEIVED. 


33 


agnosticism  upon  which  to  stand.  This  is  because  pan- 
theism is  implied  in  the  fact  of  self-existent  being  as  given 
in  the  general  fact  of  being  as  perceived  in  myself ;  until 
I  perceive  that  I  am  a  dependent  power ;  other  than  that 
upon  which  I  depend.  The  burden  rests  upon  the 
theist  to  show  this.  It  must  appear  that  to  God,  my 
action  is  objective,   external. 

Objection  has  been  made  to  the  idea  of  an  infinite 
person.  Spinoza  first,  in  modern  times,  and  finally 
Matthew  Arnold  advanced  the  criticism  that  the  infinite  is 
limited  by  regarding  it  as  personal ;  that  is,  personality  is 
necessarily  finite,  limited.  But  this  is  an  oversight  in  this 
class  of  thinkers  ;  an  oversight  which  comes  of  regarding 
the  infinite  as  the  aggregate  of  all  things.  This  is  the  same 
as  supposing  there  can  be  an  infinite  quantity,  which 
supposition  is,  of  course,  absurd  and  a  contradiction 
in  terms.  Quantity  is  identical  with  limitation,  and  to 
speak  of  an  infinite  made  up  of  limited  things  is  but  a 
contradiction  in  terms.  ♦ 

Another  oversight  into  which  these  eminent  thinkers 
have  fallen  is  in  regarding  personality  as  quantitative. 
Their  charge  of  anthropomorphism  and  fetichism,  upon 
theists,  is  because  they  suppose  personality  to  consist  in 
certain  defined  limits,  personal  organization,  physical  or 
mental.  Anthropomorphism,  the  conceiving  of  God  as  a 
man  on  a  large  or  infinite  scale,  is  certainly  a  fatal  notion 
in  theology  when  the  personality  either  of  man  or  God  is 
supposed  to  consist  in  quantitative  dimensions  or  qualita- 
tive degrees.  Fetichism,  the  attributing  life  or  personal 
identity  to  material  objects,  organic  or  inorganic,  comes 
of  the  same  quantitative  notion  of  personality.  Nor  is 
there  any  radical  change  in  the  notion  as  it  exists  in  the 
mind  of  the  child  who  kicks  the  chair  for  tripping  him, 

3 


34  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

the  Bushman  who  worships  his  "gree-gree,"  the  panthe- 
ist who  has  the  cosmos  for  his  God,  or  the  atheist  who 
rejects  a  personal  infinite,  lest  personality  may  impose 
quantitative  limitations  upon  the  infinite.  We  can  dis- 
criminate the  infinite  only  as  unconditioned  action, 
absolute  freedom.  So,  also,  personality  is  not  a  quantity 
or  an  organization  of  quantities,  not  a  quality  or  a  col- 
lection of  qualities,  subject  to  degrees,  but  is  purely  a 
matter  of  original  action.  Size,  weight,  form,  or  physi- 
cal organization  do  not  make  man  a  person.  Neither 
do  thought  or  feeling.  He  may  have  all  these,  and 
still  be  a  mere  animal  or  machine  if  all  his  qualities  are 
determined  in  kind  and  degree  for  him  by  some  other 
power.  But  it  is  because  man  determines  himself  in  cer- 
tain respects,  that  he  is  entitled  a  person.  He  can  sur- 
mount and  throw  off  many  of  his  limitations,  if  he  choose, 
or  can  impose  upon  himself  other  or  greater  limitations, 
but  in  either  case  he  originates  his  choice,  and  initiates 
the  process  by  which  he  is  determined  upward  or  down- 
ward in  the  scale  of  limitations. 

He  alone  forms  his  intentions  :  he  may  intend  injury 
to  others,  but  may  be  restrained  from  effecting  such  in- 
jury ;  yet  he  affects  and  degrades  himself  by  such  in- 
tentions, which  none  other  can  prevent.  He  may  de- 
velop or  abuse  his  qualities  of  mind  and  body,  and  so 
elevate  or  degrade  his  nature,  while  his  free  choice 
either  way  determines  his  character.  That  character, 
good  or  bad,  reacts  favorably  or  unfavorably  upon  his 
natural  qualities,  and  so  gives  them  higher  uses  or 
deeper  abuses,  as  he  may  decide.  Because  of  self- 
determination,  man  forms  a  character,  and  character  is 
made  up  of  those  qualities,  so  determined,  upon  which 
men  estimate  human   worth. 


BEING,   AS  PERCEIVED.  ^ 

Again,  progress  is  that  which  is  attained,  by  individ- 
uals and  communities,  by  comparing  simple  facts  and 
from  these  drawing  conclusions.  These  conclusions  in 
turn,  are  compared,  and  from  this  comparison  higher 
conclusions  are  drawn,  and  acted  upon.  So  sciences  are 
built,  governments  are  constructed  and  improved,  culture 
is  amplified,  and  progress  in  every  way  achieved  by 
man's  self-chosen  use  of  himself  and  his  environment,  and 
his  self-determining  power  to  transcend  his  elementary 
conditions.  Being  a  person,  he  is  capable  of  rising  from 
the  limitations  of  savagery  to  the  wider  limitations  of  the 
masterful  conditions  of  refinement ;  being  a  person,  he 
can  abuse  the  enhanced  advantages  of  refinement  and 
thereby  bring  upon  him  the  limitations  of  a  brute. 

Self-determifiation  is  personality.  A  mere  thing  which 
is  determined  in  all  respects  by  action  external  to  it,  as 
a  grain  of  sand,  a  block  of  wood,  or  a  graven  image,  is 
wholly  without  personality.  Brutes,  being  but  creatures 
of  impulse,  volitionally,  never  devoting  themselves  to 
self-improvement,  or  deemed  blameworthy  for  lack  of 
such  devotement,  likewise  fall  short  of  personality. 
Person  is  distinguished  from  thing  or  brute  in  being 
able  to  determine  itself  to  be  this  or  that,  in  any  or  all 
respects.  I  am  free  to  form  my  intentions,  and  deter- 
mine my  character,  but  am  limited  in  resources  from 
which  to  contrive  or  gain  objects  concerning  which  to 
choose  and  intend ;  and  also  limited  in  my  instrumen- 
talities, by  which  to  realize  intentions.  But  these  limi- 
tations are  simply  hedges  around  my  personality; 
merely  limited  resources  and  instruments.  In  the  use 
of  such  resources  and  instruments  as  I  have  within  me 
I  am  arbiter.  In  this  respect  I  am  free ;  without  limit 
in  the  freedom  of  choice. 


36 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


Personal  consciousness  resides  in  self-determination. 
Hence,  I  am  a  person  and  realize  my  personality,  not  in 
degrees  or  quantities,  but  in  actual  freedom  in  certain 
respects.  But  I  am  not  a  perfect,  or  infinite  person, 
for  these  reasons,  namely :  I  am  dependent  for  my  ex- 
istence, I  have  not  determined  my  own  nature,  have  not 
adjusted  my  environment  and  am  dependent  upon 
forces  external  to  me  for  my  interaction  with  all  that  is 
external  to  my  conscious  power ;  in  these  respects  I  am 
an  effect,  and  hence,  a  dependent,  or  finite  person. 
An  infinite  person  is  thought  as  one  who  determines 
himself  in  all  respects ;  his  nature,  character  and  envi- 
ronment are  dependent  in  no  respect.  Independent 
action,  or  unconditioned  action,  however  it  may  be 
phrased,  is  perfect,  or  infinite,  self-determination ;  and 
since  self-determination  is  personality,  infinite  self- 
determination  is  infinite  personality. 

That  independent  action  is  unconditioned  is  axio- 
matic. That  the  independent  is  an  infinite  person  is  the 
same  as  to  say  he  is  the  unconditioned  person.  He 
has  no  characteristic  of  an  effect  other  than  what  is 
self-imposed.  Whatever  he  is,  he  is  by  his  own  self- 
determination,  limited  by  no  pre-existing  conditions  or 
principles.  We  hear  sometimes  of  "eternal  princi- 
ples," but  there  are  no  such  things  apart  from  the  action 
of  the  Infinite  Being.  A  principle  is  nothing  but  an 
order  or  relation  in  actions,  established  by  the  actor; 
without  action  or  actor,  the  principle   vanishes. 

Moreover,  we  can  discriminate  nothing  as  infinite  ex- 
cept self-determining  power,  nothing  unconditioned  but 
freedom,  and  all  talk  of  anything  being  infinite  except 
self-determining  action  and  its  qualities  is  but  a  jumbling 
of  terms,  —  a  use  of  the  word  "  infinite  "  in  the  sense  of 


BEING,  AS  PERCEIVED.  ~* 

"  indefinite."  The  infinite  cannot  be  pictured  to  our 
imagination,  nor  in  any  way  be  grasped  by  our  minds, 
except  by  logically  discriminating  it  as  an  independent 
actor,  the  personal  infinite.  It  is  therefore  impossible 
to  think  of  primary  being  as  other  than  the  Infinite 
Person. 

These  are  implications  contained,  unavoidably,  in  the 
fact  of  being,  as  perceived.  We  close  this  chapter  with 
the  theistic  formula  :  — 

Perceived,  dependent  being  unavoidably  implies  inde- 
pendent being. 

Independent  being  is  infinitely  self-determining. 

Self-determination  is  personality ;  and  infinite  self-de- 
termination is  infinite  personality. 

Hence,  the  perceived  fact,  my  dependent  being,  un- 
avoidably implies  the   Infinite  Person,  God. 

"lam,  O  God;  and  surely  thou  must  be" 


-8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


CHAPTER   II. 

BEING,   AS   CONCEIVED. 
No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time.  —  Saint  John. 

Our  use  of  the  word  "  conceived  "  or  "conception" 
does  not  imply  a  picturing  God  to  the  mind  or  imagin- 
ing how  he  might  appear  to  our  vision.  Such  idea  of 
conception  must  be  wholly  renounced.  It  is  the  snare 
in  which  those  thinkers  are  caught  who  lay  down  the 
proposition  :  "  The  infinite  is  inconceivable."  To  use 
the  word  in  this  pictorial  sense,  to  set  aside  the  dis- 
criminations which  reason  makes  regarding  the  infinite, 
is  merely  to  play  "  fast  and  loose  "  with  the  term.  Only 
a  logically  discriminated  conception  is  to  be  counte- 
nanced in  reasoning.  Such  conception  arises  when  we 
discriminate  the  rational  implications  of  facts.  A  true 
conception  answers  to  the  question,  What  must  be 
thought  ? 

Perceived  facts  are  worthless  when  isolated  from  the 
facts  which  they  imply.  These  implications  are  the 
enacted  realities ;  the  perceived  facts  are  but  such  per- 
ception as  we  have  of  these  enactments  or  of  their 
effects.  Perceived  facts  may  imply  in  them  a  whole 
train  of  implied  facts  ;  and  these,  with  their  relations  to 
each  other,  may  force  upon  us  a  definite  conception  of 
an  object  which  is  in  no  way  open  to  perception. 
Hence,  there  are  objects  to  be  conceived  as  well  as 
objects  to  be  perceived.     Scientists,  for  example,  say 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  ,g 

they  perceive  physical  phenomena,  which  they  account 
for  by  the  conceived  facts  which  they  term  forces,  which 
they  clearly  discriminate  as  facts,  but  never  attempt  to 
picture. 

In  discriminating  the  fact  of  being  and  its  implica- 
tions we  do  not  attempt  to  transcend  the  limits  of 
human  reason  by  trying  to  picture  the  infinite ;  but  we 
simply  recognize  such  contents  of  the  perceived  fact  of 
being  as  are  unavoidably,  that  is,  self-evidently,  implied, 
and  hence  must  be  affirmed.  In  our  use  of  them  the 
terms  "infinite,"  "absolute,"  "  independent,"  and  '-'un- 
conditioned," have  a  rationally  discriminated  meaning; 
and  like  use  is  made  of  the  term  "conceived  "  in  the 
title  of  this  chapter.  The  significance  of  the  title  would 
be  preserved  if  written,  Being,  as  Discriminated. 

It  is  vain  to  say  that  we  can  have  no  conception  of 
God;  for  indeed,  all  men  have  a  conception  of  such 
being,  which  they  themselves  form  or  accept  from 
others.  Some  may  say  they  have  no  such  conception, 
when  they  only  mean  that  they  have  not  formulated 
their  conception  and  decline  to  do  so.  There  are 
writers,  even,  who  suppose  they  have  disposed  of  all  con- 
ceptions of  God  by  terming  him  "  The  Unknowable  ;  " 
but  in  this  they  simply  declare  that  he  is  not  perceived ; 
and  that  it  is  not  to  the  interest  of  their  theories  to 
admit  their  conception  as  a  fact,  or  that  it  is  too  in- 
coherent for  definition.  All  sane  men,  both  crude  and 
cultured,  are  more  or  less  conscious  of  the  implications 
of  their  being ;  and  from  this  consciousness  they  expli- 
cate the  more  or  less  crude  conception  of  an  indepen- 
dent or  supreme  power  which  underlies  their  beliefs 
and  practices. 

There  is  no  surer  method  by  which  to  expose  the 


40  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

fallacies  of  a  system,  the  baselessness  of  a  theory,  or 
the  false  trend  of  a  line  of  practice  than  to  lay  bare  the 
false  conceptions  on  which  it  rests.  Therefore,  since 
God  is  the  first,  deepest,  and  surest  implication  of  our 
being,  it  is  a  matter  of  the  greatest  moment  that  our 
conception  of  him,  so  far  as  it  is  acted  upon,  especially, 
should  be  correctly  discriminated.  It  may  be  claimed 
that  "revelation  has  already  given  us  the  true  con- 
ception of  God."  Without  our  disputing  or  affirming 
this  claim  here,  the  thought  suggests  itself  that,  as  mat- 
ters have  stood  for  several  centuries  among  believers  in 
revelation,  it  would  be  worth  their  while  either  to  define 
or  harmonize  the  various  conceptions  which  men  have 
read  into  that  revelation. 

Having  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter  the  necessary 
implications  of  being,  as  perceived,  we  now  seek  to  ascer- 
tain the  necessary  implications  of  being,  as  conceived ; 
or  in  other  words,  having  seen  that  the  perceived  fact 
of  being,  and  the  perceived  fact  of  dependence  com- 
pel us  to  accept  the  implied  fact  of  an  independent  per- 
son, we  now  proceed  to  ascertain  what  is  implied  in  this 
independent,  or  infinite  person.  In  accepting  him,  what 
further  must  we  accept? 

Perfect  action,  simply,  is  what  we  recognize  as  infinite 
being.  This  conception  is  not  made  up  of  several  ideas 
pinned  together,  but  stands  out  as  the  primary  power, 
which  we  must  recognize  as  the  independent,  uncondi- 
tioned unit.     This  conception  implies  that  — 

i.  Being  is  acting,  and  acting  is  being;  and  ceasing 
to  act  is  ceasing  to  be  ;  and  that  — 

2.  Perfect  action  is  perfect  being,  a  consciously  self- 
sustained  nature,  an  order  of  action  which  is  wholly 
self-dependent,  —  that  is,  independent. 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  4I 

But  we  desire  to  ascertain  what  kifid  of  action  is  per- 
fect action.  There  are  some  kinds,  or  classes,  of  action 
which  cannot  be  perfect,  or  unconditioned,  however 
powerful  or  free,  simply  for  the  reason  that  they  are  of 
a  kind  which  is  necessarily  conditioned  or  related.  Per- 
fect action  must  imply  more  than  merely  dynamic  per- 
fection, mere  almightiness.  Reality  is  action,  action  is 
life,  or  being,  but  it  takes  perfectly  adjusted  action  to 
fill  out  the  notion  of  perfect  reality,  perfect  action,  per- 
fect life,  or  being.  That  is  to  say,  it  must  be  thought 
perfect  in  quality,  as  well  as  without  degree.  Uncondi- 
tioned freedom  realizing  qualitative  perfection  can  alone 
satisfy  the  conception  of  perfect  action.  This  implies 
that  this  conception  includes  an  idea  or  notion  of  the 
nature  of  that  action.  The  next  step,  therefore,  in  our 
outline  is  to  define  this  notion  of  the  nature  of  perfect 
action. 

We  think  of  a  human  mind,  not  as  an  aggregate  of 
sensation,  perception,  consciousness,  reason,  memory, 
imagination,  feeling,  and  will,  but  as  a  single  being  who 
acts  in  these  various  modes  or  orders.  In  the  same 
sense  the  infinite  person  may  be  regarded  in  various 
orders,  modes,  or  classes  of  action.  Hence  we  recog- 
nize two  general  classes  of  personal  action,  Subjective 
and  Objective. 

Subjective  action  is  that  which  we  identify  with  being; 
objective,  with  doing.  The  former  includes  all  that 
pertains  to  self-determination,  or  in  any  way  determines 
the  subject,  the  person ;  the  latter,  all  that  pertains  to 
choices,  intentions,  or  volitions  which  are  directed  exter- 
nally, or  determine  objects.  In  common  usage  the 
terms  "act"  and  "action"  generally  signify  objective 
action.     For  example  :  "  We  judge  a  man's  character 


42 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


by  his  actions."  But  in  exact  usage  all  being  is  action. 
In  thinking  of  reality  we  think  of  action,  without  which 
being  cannot  be.  It  is  in  this  exact  use  of  the  term  we 
speak  of  subjective  and  objective  action. 

The  nature  is  usually  identified  with  subjective  action. 
To  speak  of  the  nature  of  the  infinite  Person  relates, 
primarily,  to  his  subjective  or  egoistic  action.  We  do 
not  conceive  of  his  nature  as  an  order  of  action  pre- 
scribed by  any  thing  or  principle  external  to  himself,  to 
mould  this  nature,  but  we  discriminate  that  independent 
action  is  consciously  self-determined ;  an  order  or  nature 
of  being,  concerning  which  it  is  competent  for  us  to 
inquire  :  What  kind  of  a  being  is  he ;  what  is  his 
nature  ? 

Such  inquiry  may  take  either  of  two  directions  :  first, 
as  to  what  nature  is  implied  in  an  unconditioned  or 
infinite  person;  or,  secondly,  What  do  his  objective 
activities  in  the  world  indicate  regarding  his  nature? 
The  first  question  is  ontological,  the  second,  cosmological. 
The  latter  inquiry  involves  two  assumptions,  namely : 
that  world-phenomena  are  his  objective  activities ;  and 
that  these  are  in  harmony  with  his  nature  and  constitute 
an  intelligible  exponent  of  the  same.  We  eschew  this 
cosmological  inquiry  for  the  reason  that  in  itself  it  is 
indeterminate,  and  must  at  last  depend  upon  ontology. 
Its  course  is  strewed  with  many  failures.  For  the 
present  we  pursue  the  ontological  method. 

What  does  reason  affirm  as  to  the  nature  of  perfect 
action?  or,  what  is  the  nature  of  the  unconditioned 
person  ? 

As  volition,  in  me,  has  to  do  with  intentions  and 
objective  activities,  I  distinguish  that  action  from  my 
nature  as  given  in  my  consciousness.     That  is  to  say, 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  ^ 

the  order  of  action  which  constitutes  my  being  is  my 
nature,  and  is  not  established,  or  posited,  by  me.  That 
order  of  my  action  which  is  termed  volition  determines 
the  qualities  which  make  up  my  character  and  is  pos- 
ited by  me.  My  nature  is  an  effect,  dependent  in  the 
fixed  form  of  action  in  which  I  consciously  perceive  it ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  my  volitions  are  my  free, 
self-originated  action.  My  nature  is  given  me.  My 
character  is  determined  by  myself.  But,  when  we 
think  of  the  independent  One  we  must  conceive  his 
nature,  as  well  as  character,  as  being  volitionally  self- 
determined.  Hence,  we  must  think  of  him  as  existing 
according  to  his  self-chosen  order.  That  is  to  say, 
nature  and  character  are  one  in  him ;  hence,  — 

Perfect  action,  conscious  and  volitional,  is  the 
highest  generalization,  the  ultimate  unit,  the  un- 
conditioned nature  of  infinite  being. 

The  preceding  sentence  is  distinctively  a  corner-stone 
in  our  system.  Perfect  action  is  here  recognized  as 
ultimate  unity,  the  goal  of  philosophy,  —  infinite,  uncon- 
ditioned reality.  It  is  perfect  being,  perfectly  self- 
conscious,  the  perfect  person. 

Perfect  action  is  perfect  self-determination,  or  the 
independent  realization  of  a  perfect  egoism.  This 
affirmation  scarcely  needs  to  be  thus  reiterated,  but, 
perhaps,  needs  a  more  explicit  notice  at  this  point. 

A  work  of  art  is  termed  the  actualization  or  realiza- 
tion of  a  conception  when  it  fixes  that  conception  as 
an  enacted  thing  in  perceptible  form.  The  Eiffel  tower 
existed  at  first  as  a  conception  in  the  thought  of  the 
architect,  but  this  conception  was  not  a  real  tower.  A 
very  minute  description  of  this  tower  was  published,  but 
this  description  was  not  a  tower,  and  could  serve  none 


44 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


of  the  purposes  for  which  the  tower  was  intended. 
Only  the  actual  building  of  the  tower  made  it  a  reality. 
This  was  its  determination.  The  action  which  thus 
fixes  a  conception,  or  practically  carries  out  a  definition 
or  description,  is  determination.  When  a  conception, 
or  ideal,  is  thus  actualized  it  is  a  determined,  a  real 
thing.  Thus  practically  carrying-out,  realizing,  actualiz- 
ing, or  determining  is  simply  enacting  that  which  may 
be  thought,  either  as  a  previously  formed  conception 
or  as  the  self-consciousness  of  what  is  being  enacted. 

When  a  person  enacts  in  himself  that  which  he  thinks 
or  desires  to  be  he  determines  himself  in  that  respect. 
His  thought  or  desire  is  no  longer  a  mere  conception  or 
wish,  but  a  reality.     This  is  self-determination. 

The  person  who  conceives  what  manner  of  person  he 
would  be  has,  in  this  conception,  an  ideal  self;  and  his 
effort  to  act  out  that  ideal  is  his  self-determination.  If 
he  succeeds  in  bringing  his  actual  self  up  to  the  stan- 
dard of  this  ideal  self  his  self-determination  is  successful. 
This  is  conditioned  self-determination ;  conditioned  by 
the  previously  formed  conception,  or  ideal.  It  is  this 
power  of  self-determination,  thus  and  otherwise  condi- 
tioned, that  constitutes  conditioned,  or  dependent 
personality. 

Perfect  action  is  not  conditioned  by  a  previously 
formed  conception,  or  ideal,  which  it  seeks  to  realize, 
but  its  self-conscionsfiess,  as  in  our  thinking  we  separate 
it  from  the  action,  is  the  absolute,  or  infinite  ideal. 
Hence,  we  have  a  clear  conception  that  perfect  action 
is  unconditioned  even  by  an  objective  ideal.  It  is 
perfect  self-determination. 

The  "ultimate  unit"  we  find  in  perfect  self-determi- 
nation.    As  perfect  action  is  independent  of  interaction 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  45 

or  any  condition,  it  must  be  a  unit.  It  is  not  an  inter- 
action of  several  forces ;  for  that  would  be  related  ac- 
tion, and  hence  not  independent,  but  conditioned. 
The  existence  of  more  than  one  infinite  being  cannot 
be  thought ;  for  that  would  imply  mutual  dependence 
and  limitation.  Neither  can  perfect  action  be  objective 
action ;  for  the  reason  that  it  must  then  act  in  relation 
to  its  object.  Perfect  action  must  be  thought  a  self- 
realizing  subject.  Perfect,  in  the  sense  of  independent, 
or  unconditioned,  action  it  is  without  interaction  and 
without  relation.  It  is  simply  a  perfectly  self-deter- 
mined unit. 

In  a  unit  which  is  perfectly  self-determined  is  the  one- 
ness of  "  thought  and  thing ;  "  or,  rather,  the  oneness 
of  thought  and  action.  Finite  minds  find  it  difficult  to 
identify  thought  and  act.  This  difficulty  arises  from 
the  fact  that  their  self-determination  is  conditioned ;  and 
prominent  among  their  conditions  is  that  of  the  separate 
actions  of  judgment  and  will;  involving  the  acquirement 
of  sufficient  knowledge  to  form  a  conception  or  judg- 
ment upon  which  by  their  will  to  determine  themselves. 
On  this  account  their  determining  intentions  succeed 
their  thought ;  and  the  thought  is  but  an  ideal  or  defini- 
tion, not  a  reality,  not  a  real  thing  until  it  is  enacted. 

Nevertheless,  when  we  discriminate  independent  self- 
determination  we  recognize  that  perfect  reality  in  which 
perfect  thought  is  self-conscious,  that  perfect  action 
which  is  perfectly  conscious  of  itself.  The  self-con- 
sciousness of  perfect  thought  is,  identically,  the  self-con- 
sciousness of  perfect  action.  Consciously  perfect  action 
and  consciously  perfect  thought  are  only  other  phras- 
ings  of  consciously  perfect  bei?ig. 

We  admit  that  we  may  well  hesitate  to  claim  that  we 


46  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

find  here  the  ultimate  oneness  of  "  thought  and 
thing ; "  since  failure  in  this  attempt  has  been  honored 
by  some  of  the  greatest  names  in  the  history  of  philoso- 
phy. Our  finite  minds  naturally  query,  How  can 
thought  and  act  be  one  ?  But  this  impenetrable  "  How  " 
of  being  is  distinctly  what  has  nothing  to  do  with  this 
matter.  The  truth  is  we  cannot  see  that  the  facts  can 
be  otherwise  than  as  stated  above.  As  Professor  Bowne 
has  pertinently  said,  it  is  asking  "  how  being  is  made  ;  " 
a  question  which,  perhaps,  only  an  infinite  thinker  can 
ever  understand. 

However,  we  see  no  flaw  in  the  reasoning  which 
leads  us  to  affirm  that  perfect  self-determination  is  per- 
fectly self-conscious.  Certainly,  action  or  being  cannot 
be  perfect  if  it  is  not  perfectly  conscious  of  itself. 
Hence,  we  must  say,  action  cannot  be  perfect  without 
perfect  thought;  and  perfect  thought  cannot  exist  ex- 
cept in  perfect  action.  The  perfection  of  either  is  in 
their  oneness.  We  cannot  see  otherwise  than  that  un- 
conditioned, perfect  self-determination  is  one  in  thought 
and  act.     7/  is  the  consciously  pe?'fect  reality. 

From  this  unit  we  explicate  thought  and  thing.  We 
separate,  in  our  thinking,  the  affirmations  of  qualities, 
or  properties,  which  this  unit  implies  or  founds.  Hence 
we  may  affirm  that,  as  the  consciousness  of  perfect 
reality,  it  is  the  perfect  thought,  or  infinite  ideal.  But 
in  the  supposed  absence  of  infinite  consciousness  it 
cannot  be  affirmed  as  perfect  action  ;  neither  can  infi- 
nite consciousness  be  affirmed  in  the  supposed  lack  of 
perfect  action. 

Although  perfect  action  is  not  compound  but  simple, 
yet  we  may  affirm  of  it  or  explicate  from  it  various 
phases  or  qualities  of  this  simple  unit,  without  impairing 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  4y 

our  conception  of  it  as  an  unconditioned  unit.  Al- 
though perfect  personality  is  included  in  the  affirmations 
we  have  already  made,  it  may  maintain  clearness  of 
view  to  emphasize  at  this  point  that  — 

Perfect  action  is  perfectly  intentional.  —  We  affirm  of 
this  unit  both  absolute  will  and  absolute  purpose;  by 
which  we  mean  that  it  is  absolutely  free  action,  free  as 
caprice  ;  and  yet  has  a  fixed,  eternal  intent.  Self-deter- 
mination is  essentially  intention.  In  the  various  classes 
of  our  action  there  is  none  in  which  we  are  self-deter- 
mining, except  that  in  which  thought  and  act  are 
united ;  and  this  is  the  action  which  we  term  intending, 
or  the  intent  or  inner  purpose.  But,  with  us,  there  are 
many  conditions  and  classes  of  self-conditioning  action 
which  are  needed  as  preparatory  to  forming  an  inten- 
tion ;  and  many  in  giving  it  effect.  Yet  we  do  not 
accomplish  self-determination  without  intention,  no  mat- 
ter how  full  and  favorable  our  conditions  may  be.  And 
although  we  are  often  prevented  from  carrying  out  our 
intention  externally,  by  external  restraint,  or  by  lack  of 
means  or  opportunity,  yet  it  determines  our  inner  char- 
acter. An  intention  to  murder  gives  a  man  the  character 
of  a  murderer  although  he  may  never  have  had  the  op- 
portunity to  shed  a  drop  of  blood.  Intent  is,  subject- 
ively, the  union  of  thought  and  act.  It  determines  the 
ego,  the  inner  real  self. 

But  we  are  conscious  of  having  constructed,  formed, 
this  intention  ;  of  having  united  thought  and  act,  or  desire 
and  will.  Hence  we  praise  or  blame  each  other  for  only 
what  we  have  intended.  But  in  perfect  being  inten- 
tion is  not  conditioned,  not  made  up  of  preliminary  or 
accessory  self-conditioning,  but  is  unconditioned,  and 
hence    is    perfect    or  independent   self-determination. 


48  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

We  easily  see  that  if  we  were  thus  independent  of  all 
conditions,  needed  nothing  by  which  to  form  or  effectu- 
ate our  self-determination,  we  should  be  in  our  nature 
as  well  as  character  as  we  intend.  Our  intent  would  be 
our  nature,  as  now  it  is  our  character.  Hence  it  is  cor- 
rect to  say  that  the  nature  of  perfect  action  is  uncondi- 
tioned, eternal  intent. 

The  habitual  intent  of  a  man's  life  is  that  which  he 
would  be,  and  accounts  for  what  he  does  or  would  do. 
It  is  the  determining  force  in  each  person.  One  is 
intent  upon  fame,  another  on  wealth,  and  another  upon 
pleasure.  It  determines  his  character  and  accounts  for 
his  minor  intentions  and  external  acts.  It  is  the  su- 
preme intention  of  his  life.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  we 
say  concerning  the  nature  of  the  independent  person  : 
The  unconditioned  intention  is  the  self-determination 
of  perfect  being.  Inte7ition  is  realization  with  him.  To 
be  less  were  to  be  conditioned.  Hence  the  nature  of 
perfect  action,  perfect  self-determination,  the  absolute 
reality,  the  independent  person,  is  intentionally  perfect 
being. 

//  is  devoted  realization  of  perfect  being.  When  the 
intent  involves  the  entire  being,  determines  all  his  quali- 
ties, and  contemplates  neither  change  nor  end,  it  may  be 
termed  devotement.  And  if  this  intent  realizes  itself 
immediately,  achieves  its  realization  exclusive  of  every 
other  order  of  action,  it  is  unconditioned,  independent 
devotement.  It  is  at  once  devotement  and  achieve- 
ment, devoted  achievement.  Thus  independent  it  is 
not  compound,  but  simple, — action  which  is  at  once 
the  life  in  which  are  infinite  thought,  wish,  and  will. 

Unconditioned  devotement  cannot  be  thought  except 
as  purely  egoistic,  perfectly  free,  perfectly  self-conscious, 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED. 


49 


perfectly  self-chosen,  definite,  and  supreme.  It  has  in 
it  nothing  aimless,  fortuitous,  or  fatalistic.  As  devote- 
ment  is  central  in  conditioned  personality,  it  is  single 
and  eternal  in  the  unconditioned  person.  It  is  neither 
obedience  on  the  one  hand,  nor  caprice  on  the  other. 
Independent,  it  obeys  neither  necessity,  instinct,  nor  con- 
ditions. Devoted,  it  is  of  infinite  meaning,  interest,  and 
purpose.  It  is  in  no  sense  or  degree  without  inten- 
tional significance. 

In  man,  devotement  is  the  self-disposing  force  which 
can  adjust  all  the  energies  of  his  being.  For  example  : 
Here  is  a  man  led  out  to  be  beheaded.  This  catas- 
trophe has  not  been  unforeseen  by  him.  It  had  been 
contemplated  in  his  self-adjustment ;  and  the  course  of 
life  which  has  led  up  to  this  scene  has  been  one  of 
almost  unrivalled  hardship.  Its  sufferings  have  been 
equalled  only  by  its  renunciations  ;  for  the  sufferer  is  of 
gentle  breeding,  scholarship,  and  saintly  character.  His 
was  high  caste,  but  he  renounced  it ;  repute,  but  he  for- 
feited it ;  political  promise,  but  he  turned  his  back  upon 
it ;  wealth,  but  he  chose  to  be  an  outcast.  As  a  preacher 
he  made  long  tours  of  the  Roman  Empire,  paying  his 
way  from  the  earnings  of  his  own  hands.  Nothing  in 
the  circumstances  of  this  lawyer  and  scholar,  nothing  of 
worldly  gain  or  ambition  can  explain  his  self-determined 
attitude  as  a  preacher.  He  had,  though  in  chains, 
argued  and  taught  with  Roman  thinkers  ;  though  hun- 
gry, instructed  philosophers  at  Athens.  Friendless  and 
buffeted  he  had,  by  his  eloquence,  disarmed  mobs  at 
Jerusalem ;  and  though  a  prisoner,  had  made  kings  and 
courts  quail  under  his  persuasive  power.  Neither  insan- 
ity nor  depravity  can  be  a  solution  of  this  marvel  of  self- 
abnegation.     Back  of  every  other  order  of  action,  back 

4 


cjo  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

of  suffering,  labor,  speech,  reasoning,  planning,  praying  ; 
back  of  all  these  must  be  found  the  determining  action 
which  disposed  and  sustained  the  subject  of  this  career 
of  restless  and  apparently  wasteful  endeavor.  He  him- 
self disclosed  the  secret  which  had  puzzled  friend 
and  foe.  Devotement  to  the  realization  of  an  ideal 
self,  that  ideal  self  for  which  he  had  been  "  appre- 
hended of  Christ,"  he  declared  was  this  self-determin- 
ing force  in  his  life.  In  this  devotement  there  was 
nothing  aimless,  fortuitous,  or  fatalistic.  It  was  free, 
self-conscious,  wholly  purposed,  all-absorbing,  self-deter- 
mining. This  was  simply  a  life  of  devoted  realization 
of  ideal  character. 

In  the  same  sense,  but  unconditioned,  the  perfect  self- 
determination  of  God  must  be  thought  of  as  infinite 
intent,  devoted  self-determination.  No  account  can  be 
given  of  the  perceived  facts  upon  which  this  inquiry  be- 
gan, namely,  my  own  being  and  dependence,  until  I 
recognize  that  which  is  implied  by  them,  namely,  the 
source  of  all  reality  in  action  which  is  consciously  and 
intentionally  infinite  perfection.  Thought,  feeling,  and 
will  may  be  explicated  from  it,  or  may  be  affirmed  of  it, 
but  neither  nor  all  of  these  terms  adequately  express  its 
own  generic  unity.  It  is  independent  being  devotedly 
realizing  its  own  perfection.  It  is  perfect  devotement 
for  the  reasons  that  it  is  perfectly  self-conscious,  per- 
fectly purposed,  and  perfectly  free.  It  is  simple  devote- 
ment for  the  reason  that  it  is  unconditioned.  Being 
unconditioned,  it  is  self-realizing.  It  is  devoted  achieve- 
ment. The  perfect  devotement  of  any  person  is  his 
supreme  devotement ;  and  hence  the  perfect  devote- 
ment of  an  independent  person  is  supreme  devotement, 
the  infinite  experience  of  perfect  being. 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  ^ 

But  this  is  to  say  that  God's  nature  is  devotement 
to  perfection  in  himself?     Precisely  ! 

Perfect  self-love  is  the  nature  of  perfect  action.  —  Self- 
love  is  not  only  the  first  right  of  being,  but  it  is  in  finite 
persons  the  worthy,  and  in  the  infinite  Person  the 
supremely  worthy  devotement.  Since  in  himself  alone 
can  unconditioned  perfection  be  realized,  supreme  self- 
love  in  him  is  the  infinite  and  infinitely  worthy  nature. 
In  this  there  is  the  abiding  realization  of  perfect  egoism. 

If  it  be  suggested  that  an  independent  person  might 
determine  his  own  nature  to  be  somewhat  inferior  to 
perfection  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  such  case  he 
would  be  conscious  of  being  imperfect.  This  conscious- 
ness of  imperfect  being  would  be  imposed  by  conscious 
failure  to  realize  the  infinite  consciousness  which  would 
be  the  differentiation  of  thought  and  action ;  and  thought 
would  condition  and  condemn  his  actual  being.  But 
this  is  a  contradiction  which  would  compel  us  to  think 
of  the  independent  as  morally  dependent,  the  uncon- 
ditioned as  conditioned,  the  inseparable  unit  as  divided. 
It  is  therefore  clear  that  the  notion  of  perfect  action 
must  be  conceived  as  a  being  of  consciously  infinite 
perfection. 

Selfishness  is  a  mode  of  self-determination  which 
should  be  sharply  discriminated.  It  is  a  form  of  devo- 
tion to  self  which  is  in  detriment,  or  antagonism  to 
another.  This  implies  that  the  one  is  related  to  that 
other,  and  is  thus  conditioned  by  him.  Selfishness, 
therefore,  cannot  be  thought  except  as  relative  and  con- 
ditioned, and  consequently  has  no  place  in  perfect  self- 
determination.  Since  perfect  action,  realizing  perfect 
being,  is  not  and  cannot  be  in  derogation  of  any  other, 
his  devotion  to  perfection  in  himself  is  purely  self-love  ; 


-2  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

it  is  the  supreme  devotement  of  perfect  egoism.  We 
have  no  occasion  to  deny  that  infinite  freedom  can  be 
thought  as  able  to  determine  itself  as  a  malevolent 
nature,  but  this  would  be  to  resign  infinite  freedom. 
Such  a  nature  cannot  be  thought  as  realizing  perfection 
of  being,  cannot  be  unconditioned.  The  nature  of 
perfect  action  cannot  be  thought  as  other  than  de- 
votement to  self-perfection,  and  this  is  independent 
self-love. 

Self-love  is  the  nature  of  supreme  self-determination. 
When  we  consider  self-love  as  devotion  to  perfection  in 
one's  self  it  appears  plainly  as  the  nature  of  supreme 
self-determination.  In  the  perfect  One  it  is  perfectly, 
or  infinitely,  self-determining.  In  him  it  differs  from 
self-love  in  man  in  that  it  is  a  self-established  nature  ;  not 
instigated  or  influenced  by  any  force  or  object  external 
to  himself,  but  is  his  self-determined  nature. 

Self-love  founds  the  infinite  ideal.  It  does  not  copy, 
obey,  or  seek  the  infinite  ideal  as  subject  to  an  obli- 
gation thereto,  but  is  that  action  the  self-consciousness 
of  which  is  the  infinite  ideal.  In  independent  self- 
determination  the  infinite  ideal  is  self-conscious  in  the 
infinite  reality ;  hence  self-love,  as  the  realization  of  the 
infinite,  is  the  actualization  of  a  perfect  self,  whose 
consciousness  of  himself  is  the  infinite  conception,  or 
ideal. 

I  can  conceive  an  ideal  self  which  I  may  labor  to 
attain,  actually.  When  I  have  actually  realized  this 
ideal  it  is  no  longer  a  conception  which  I  seek  to  copy, 
but  has  become  one  with  my  self-consciousness  or  con- 
sciousness of  myself.  But  when  we  think  of  the  uncon- 
ditioned Person  we  necessarily  think  of  an  actual 
perfection  who  does  not  seek  to  attain,  but  is  actually 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  5  3 

conscious  of  infinite  perfection.  This  consciousness  of 
perfection,  as  in  our  thought  we  distinguish  it  from 
action,  is  the  infinite  ideal. 

For  the  purposes  of  our  thinking,  an  ideal  may  be 
contemplated  as  such  whether  it  be  the  self-conscious- 
ness of  perfect  action  or  an  unrealized  conception.  In 
me  the  thought  or  ideal  precedes  the  enacting,  and  it 
thereby  conditions  my  action,  but  the  perfect  action  is 
conscious  of  itself  as  perfect.  This  consciousness  of 
its  perfection  is  what  we  term  the  perfect  thought  in 
perfect  action,  the  ideal  in  the  real;  but  in  fact  both 
are  real  because  one.  In  the  highest  generalization  the 
infinite  conception,  or  ideal,  is  the  self-consciousness  of 
perfect  action,  the  infinite  Person's  knowledge  of  him- 
self. The  best  definition,  then,  which  we  can  give 
to  self-love  is  this  :  7?  is  that  kind  of  action  which  in  a 
perfect  being  actualizes,  in  a  finite  being  seeks  to  actualize, 
a  perfect  or  ideal  self. 

"  The  ideal "  is  a  phrase  which  has  especially  two 
different  applications.  First,  it  is  used  to  represent  the 
unreal,  that  which  is  not  actualized,  or  perhaps  may 
sometimes  be  thought  incapable  of  realization  ;  hence  it 
is  often  applied  to  ideas,  plans,  or  conceptions  which  are 
regarded  as  chimerical,  Utopian.  Secondly,  it  has  the 
sense  of  the  perfect  when  applied  to  thoughts,  plans,  or 
mental  conceptions.  We  may  have  a  conception  of  a 
perfect  house.  This  we  term  an  ideal  house  for  the 
reason  that  it  is  only  a  conception  or  plan  of  what  would 
be  a  perfect  house  were  it  built.  But  this  ideal  house 
is  unrealized  until  built,  when  it  may  be  termed  a 
perfect  house.  Hence,  we  speak  of  God  as  perfect 
because  he  is  actual  perfection  ;  and  of  finite  persons  as 
seeking  to  realize  an  ideal  self  because  their  self-deter- 


54 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


mination  is  a  process  toward  realizing  a  conception  or 
ideal  of  their  best  selves. 

Self-love,  by  realizing  a  perfect  egoism,  founds  per- 
fect altruism.  Egoism  which  is  determined  by  inde- 
pendent self-love  must  be  thought  unsusceptible  to 
impairment.  So  thought,  this  ego  has  no  object  to 
attain,  or  attainable,  greater  than  his  own  perfection. 
Secure  in  his  perfect  realization  of  being,  he  is  able 
to  lavish  the  excellence  of  being  upon  any  and  all 
objects  which  he  may  choose  to  posit,  or  create, 
that  they  may  be  the  objective  expression  of  such  ex- 
cellence, may  be  the  sharers  of  that  excellence,  sharers 
with  him  whose  perfection  cannot  be  impaired  through 
any  possible  extension  or  multiplication  of  finite  being. 
Thus  indiminishable  in  egoistic  perfection,  he  alone  is 
in  a  position  to  realize  the  "  self-forgetfulness "  of 
perfect  altruism.  He  has  no  occasion  to  protect  his 
own  self-assured  perfection.  Perfect  egoism  is  the  only 
possible  condition  to  perfect  altruism ;  and  hence, 
infinite  self-love  must  be  the  only  kind  of  action  which 
is  capable  of  altruistic  perfection. 

Not  only  is  his  nature  the  occasion,  but  must  be 
thought  the  perfect  self-assurance  which,  if  he  choose  to 
act  objectively,  must  warrant  unreserved  unselfishness ; 
maintaining  the  highest  egoistic  self-consciousness 
throughout  a  perfect  altruistic  determination. 

A  powerful,  expert  swimmer,  in  apparent  self-abandon- 
ment plunges  into  the  sea  and  rescues  a  drowning  man. 
But  what  seems  to  inexpert  observers  as  self-abandon- 
ment is,  really,  the  fullest  consciousness  of  his  powers  as 
a  swimmer.  It  is  this  full  consciousness  of  his  powers 
which  frees  him  from  attention  to  himself  and  con- 
centrates his  attention   upon   another.     One  less  able 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  55 

must  divide  his  attention  between  the  safety  of  himself 
and  that  of  the  other;  but  perfect  ability,  perfectly 
devoted,  is  perfectly  self-conscious  in  the  self-forgetful- 
ness  of  altruistic  devotion  to  the  rescue  of  the  drowning 
one.  The  highest  self-consciousness  of  the  swimmer  is 
present  in  the  highest  self-consciousness  of  the  rescuer. 
The  swimmer  and  rescuer  are  one.  Conscious  perfection 
of  either  is  in  the  perfect  self-consciousness  of  the  other. 
Thus  perfection  of  being  must  be  thought  as  a  perfect 
egoism  consciously  capable  of  a  perfect  altruistic  life. 
The  independent  devotement  which  realizes  a  perfect 
ego  conditions  in  his  own  perfection  a  complete  altruism. 
The  highest  self-consciousness  of  perfect  being  is 
present  in  the  spirit  of  limitless  altruism.  A  perfect 
egoism  is  requisite  to  perfect  altruism ;  and  perfect 
altruistic  freedom  is  requisite  to  perfect  egoism ;  and 
the  perfect  determination  of  self-love  is  requisite  to  both. 
And  this  is  why  self-love  is  the  only  thinkable  nature  of 
perfect  action. 

The  conception  of  perfect  being,  then,  is  that  of 
the  ego  so  secure  and  independent  in  the  realization 
of  perfect  being  as  to  be  free  to  limitless  altruistic 
devotement. 

Love  and  self-love  are  subjectively  one.  Self-love 
differs  in  no  respect  from  love  in  the  subjective  nature  or 
character  of  any  being.  Under  either  name  it  is  the 
nature  of  supreme  self-determination.  Self-love  is  but  a 
convenient  term  by  which  to  confine  the  attention  to 
love's  action  when  considered  subjectively.  The  action 
is  the  same,  and  love  is  its  simplest  and  most  exact 
designation.  Love  is  termed  self-love  when  it  is  de- 
voted to  perfection  in  one's  self,  but  since  it  may 
determine  forms  of  manifestation  objectively,  the  term 


56  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

"  self-love  "  becomes  inappropriate.  The  true  definition 
of  these  terms  is  as  follows  :  — 

Love  is  that  action  which  is  conscious  of  an  ideal 
which,  unconditioned,  it  realizes  ;  conditioned,  seeks  to 
realize. 

Self-love  is  that  action  which  is  conscious  of  an  ideal 
self  which  unconditioned,  it  realizes;  conditioned,  seeks 
to  realize.  Thus  it  is  seen  they  are  subjectively  the 
same,  but  the  term  "  self"  must  be  dropped  when  the 
action  is  viewed  in  altruistic  freedom  and  spirit.  And 
this  is  true  of  love  whether  in  the  infinite  Person,  who 
founds  the  infinite  ideal  in  his  perfect  action,  or  in  man 
by  whom  an  ideal  self  is  objectively  contemplated.  My 
self-love,  if  pure,  is  devoted  to  the  realization  of  an  ideal 
character  in  myself.  If  I  perceive  that  ideal  character 
realized  in  another  person  I  love  that  person.  My 
devotion  to  that  ideal,  my  love  of  that  character  is  the  same 
whether  realized  in  myself  or  in  another,  although  in  the 
one  case  it  is  termed  self-love ,  and  in  the  other  simply 
love.  My  supreme  devotion  to  that  other  person  may 
work  the  highest  self-determination  in  me.  I  realize  my 
highest  self-love  in  my  love  of  that  person ;  and  so 
long  as  my  self-love  derogates  nothing  from  that  other, 
it  is  pure  love  toward  him.  When  it  derogates  or 
detracts  from  him  it  is  neither  love  nor  self-love,  but 
selfishness.  It  is  devotion  to  an  actual  self  which 
rejects  the  ideal. 

Supreme  devotement  is  love,  whether  it  be  that  of  an 
infinite  or  finite  being.  Whatever  degree  of  devotement 
any  being  may  have  for  himself  or  any  other,  whether 
respect,  obedience,  admiration,  or  love,  his  supreme 
devotement  has  no  higher,  fuller  mode  than  love,  de- 
votion to  the  realization  of  the  perfect.     It  may  thrill 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  ^ 

the  narrow  conditions  of  an  animal,  may  concentrate 
the  self-determining  powers  of  man,  harmonize  the  as- 
pirations of  seraphs,  or  be  the  nature  of  the  infinite. 
Conditioned  or  unconditioned,  it  is  the  actualization 
of  its  consciousness  of  the  perfect,  simply  and  only 
love. 

Greater  simplicity,  perhaps,  in  exhibiting  love  as  the 
nature  of  perfect  action  may  be  attained  by  a  regres- 
sive statement.     For  example  :  — 

i.  Love  objectively  manifested  is  beneficent  altruism, 
benevolent,  unselfish,  or  disinterested  action. 

2.  Infinite  benevolence,  or  perfect  altruism,  can  be 
realized  only  in  perfect  altruistic  freedom. 

3.  Perfect  altruistic  freedom  can  exist  only  in  perfect 
egoism. 

4.  Perfect  egoism  is  realized  only  in  perfect  devote- 
ment  to  perfection  of  being. 

5.  Independent  devotement  to  perfection  of  being  is 
the  nature  of  perfect  action.     Hence  :  — 

Love,  which,  when  objectively  developed,  is  unselfish- 
ness, benevolence,  beneficent  altruism,  is  the  nature  of 
perfect  action. 

Every  step  of  this  statement  is  so  transparent,  and  the 
leading  back  of  love,  as  unselfishness,  to  love  as  perfect 
action  so  self-evident,  that  a  further  discussion  of  them 
would  be  superfluous. 

The  line  of  development  which  we  have  adopted,  how- 
ever, is  not  the  regressive,  but  the  progressive  method. 
This  is,  in  brief,  as  follows  :  Perfect  reality  is  perfect 
action;  perfect  action  implies  perfect  self-conscious- 
ness ;  the  self-consciousness  of  perfect  action  is  the 
infinite  ideal ;  that  kind  of  action  which  has  in  it  an 
ideal  which  it  realizes  is  love  ;   love's  self-determination 


^ 8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

is  an  egoism  that  has  in  it  perfect  altruistic  freedom ; 
altruistic  freedom  in  action  which  is  devoted  to  the 
determination  of  being  affords  the  spirit,  or  spontaneity, 
of  perfect  altruism,  perfect  unselfishness. 

When  the  nature  of  perfect  action  is  thus  developed 
objectively  no  one  can  hesitate  to  recognize  it  as  love. 
Yet  it  is  equally  clear  that  such  development  of  love 
could  never  originate  except  in  the  nature  of  an  infinite 
being.  It  is  that  action  which  founds  in  itself  a  perfect 
which  it  devotedly  realizes.  It  is  not  essentially  related 
action,  but  is  self-realizing;  and  has  occasion  for  objects 
of  love  only  as  they  represent  its  own  ideals,  or  may  be 
instruments  of  their  realization,  for  finite  beings.  Such 
occasion  for  objects  of  love  is  a  need  of  only  dependent 
beings.  In  the  independent,  love  actualizes  conscious 
self-perfection. 

Love  is  the  grand  involution  of  all  qualities  which 
must  have  their  origin  in  independent  action.  We  can 
say  of  love,  as  of  God,  it  is  good,  true,  holy,  and  beauti- 
ful, but  none  of  these  qualities  are  love.  We  can  expli- 
cate from  love,  as  we  do  from  perfect  action,  thought, 
wish,  and  will,  but  neither  nor  all  represent  its  absolute 
singleness  of  act.  Poets  and  orators  have  thrilled  the 
world  with  their  marvellous  sayings  about  love ;  but 
when  we  would  state  what  love  is  the  difficulty  is  the 
same  as  that  which  is  encountered  in  the  effort  to  define 
the  nature  of  the  infinite,  namely,  the  difficulty  of  repre- 
senting action  to  which  the  relation  of  subject  to  object 
is  not  essential.  The  good,  or  goodness,  in  the  sense  of 
beneficence,  the  metaphysical  sense,  means  no  more 
than  a  practical  quality  or  result.  We  may  say,  "  De- 
votion to  the  perfect  achieves  the  highest  good,"  but 
this  does  not  define  perfect  action.     It  only  states  one 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  ^ 

of  its  results  or  qualities ;  that  is  to  say,  devotion  to 
perfection  is  of  a  good  quality,  for  the  reason  that  one 
of  its  results  is  the  highest  good.  Thus  "  the  good," 
in  this  exact  sense,  can  only  express  a  quality  or  result 
of  this  action,  but  it  is  not  the  action.  The  moralist, 
in  his  generalization  of  positive  qualities,  often  rests  in 
what  he  terms  the  "Absolute  Good."  But  absolute 
good,  beside  being  an  unintelligible  expression,  is,  and 
does  no  good  except  as  it  is  founded  as  a  quality  or 
grouping  of  qualities  of  perfect  action ;  and  then  it  is 
a  quality  or  set  of  the  qualities  of  love.  Used  in  this 
moral  or  religious  sense,  "  the  good  "  simply  stands  for 
holiness,  truth,  and  happiness,  merely  a  group  of  quali- 
ties and  results.  In  Jike  manner,  holiness,  beauty,  and 
truth,  severally,  are  in  one  way  or  other  incident  to 
perfect  action ;  but  none  nor  all  of  them  give  us  the 
essential  nature  of  this  action.  But  love,  which  is  not 
a  property,  quality,  or  result,  is  self-determining  action 
which  founds  qualities  and  results.  Another  traces  the 
beautiful  to  "its  source  in  the  absolute  ideal,"  but  the 
"  absolute  ideal,"  which  can  be  beautiful  only  because 
of  its  pleasurableness,  is  an  empty  abstraction  which 
cannot  be  pleasurable,  except  as  the  consciousness  of 
perfect  action ;  and  then  it  is  love's  consciousness  of 
actualizing  the  perfect.  Others  make  much  of  "  eternal 
principles,"  but  these  can  be  clearly  discriminated  only 
as  properties  of  perfect  action,  which  thoroughly  knows 
itself;  and  this  is  but  the  self-consciousness  of  infinite 
love.  As  to  the  "  infinite  ideal,"  we  have  seen  it  is 
simply  the  perfect  being's  consciousness  of  himself. 
Separated,  in  our  thinking,  from  his  action,  it  is  the 
infinite  ideal ;  it  is  that  which  men  are  groping  after 
when  they  speak  of  "  eternal  principles."     They  fail  to 


60  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

grasp  it,  and  therefore  deny  it,  because  they  seek  a 
theoretic  system,  instead  of  an  ideal  unit.  Jesus  said 
he  bore  witness  unto  the  (ideal)  truth,  the  divine  con- 
sciousness ;  while  Pilate  sceptically  queried,  "  What  is 
(theoretic)  truth?"  We  recognize  this  consciousness 
of  perfect  being  as  the  infinite  self-consciousness  of 
love. 

The  true,  or  absolute  truth,  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
infinite  ideal.  We  cannot  distinguish  it  from  the  con- 
sciousness of  perfect  action ;  and,  as  said  before,  this 
is  identical  with  the  self-consciousness  of  unconditioned 
love.  Love  has  in  it,  not  only  practical  perfection,  the 
good,  but  also  the  infinite  ideal,  the  true. 

An  ideal  is  a  conception  of  a  unit  from  which  ray  out 
various  qualities  and  implications  which  are  implicit  in 
this  unit.  The  truths  or  principles  thus  implicit  in  the 
ideal  are  dependent  upon  it,  and  have  their  significance 
only  as  implications  of  the  ideal.  "  Eternal  principles  " 
are  true  only  because  the  infinite  ideal  is  truth;  and 
are  eternal  only  because  perfect  action  is  eternal.  They 
bear  no  part  in  constructing  the  truth  of  that  ideal,  but 
are  constructed  as  phases  or  affirmations  of  it. 

As  an  ideal  is  a  unit,  it  comprehends  in  unity  that 
which  may  be  analyzed  or  studied  as  its  contents.  A 
complete  and  systematic  knowledge  of  these  contents 
would  be  a  theory,  or  science,  of  that  ideal.  The  in- 
finite ideal  is  truth  in  the  absolute  sense  of  a  unit  in 
which  is  all  theoretic  truth.  None  but  an  infinite 
thinker,  we  must  presume,  can  understand  a  theory 
of  the  infinite  ideal ;  that  is,  have  a  theoretic  knowledge 
of  absolute  truth. 

Relative  truth  arises  with  objective  action  on  the  part 
of  God,  in  establishing  dependent  being  and  its  incident 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  6 1 

relationship ;  and  then  relative  truth  is  right  relation  to, 
or  harmony  with  the  infinite  ideal.  One  may  ask,  scep- 
tically, Might  not  truth  have  been  constructed  differently 
from  what  it  is  ?  Or,  with  that  acute  thinker,  Mr.  John 
Stuart  Mill,  he  may  suggest  that  truth,  in  some  worlds, 
may  be  so  different  from  what  it  is  in  this  that  "two 
and  two  may  make  five."  Let  such  an  one  reflect  that 
these  suggestions  are  the  emptiness  of  folly,  unless  there 
can  be  other  than  one  infinite  ideal ;  unless  there  is  other 
than  one  perfect  consciousness  of  the  perfect  action. 

Holiness,  or  the  holy,  is  the  perfectness  of  intention 
in  free  action.  Hence  the  intended,  or  purposed,  per- 
fectness of  perfect  action,  or  the  perfect  being,  is  in- 
finite or  perfect  holiness.  It  is  that  quality  of  being 
which  stands  out  to  our  thought  when  we  contemplate 
the  intentionally  perfect  self-determination  of  God.  If 
his  nature  were  necessitated  it  could  have  no  moral 
quality.  Or  if  it  could  be  thought  perfectly  free,  yet 
capricious,  aimless,  or  fortuitous,  it  would  be  destitute 
of  moral  quality.  But  free  self-determination  is  moral, 
and  is  perfectly  righteous,  or  holy,  because  of  its  freely 
purposed  perfection. 

We  have  already  recognized  purpose,  or  intent,  in  love, 
the  devoted  nature  of  perfect  action,  and  hence  may 
affirm  the  quality,  perfect  holiness  in  the  purposed  per- 
fectness of  love.  When  we  affirm  that  God  is  holy,  we 
mean  to  say  that  he  is  intentionally  perfect.  Perfect 
personality,  perfect  egoism,  is  infinitely  holy.  Perfect 
action,  being,  egoism,  personality,  cannot  be  thought 
except  as  intentionally  what  it  is,  and  wholly  so.  Hence, 
as  we  have  seen  before,  perfect  action  is  wholly  ethical ; 
and  its  ethical  quality  is  perfect  holiness,  since  love  is 
purely  devotement  to  the  perfect. 


62  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

Moral  authority  arises  in  purposed  perfection.  The 
holy  'is  an  authoritative  sentiment  which  intentionally 
self-achieved  perfectness  imposes  upon  all  other  inten- 
tional action.  Love,  because  of  its  perfection,  is  the 
criterion,  standard,  or  authority  which  indicates  what  all 
other  action  ought  to  be.  Figuratively  it  is  the  wheel 
to  which  all  other  action  must  be  adjusted  in  order  to 
achieve  its  highest  being  and  welfare.  Hence  a  universe 
of  dependent  persons  must  find  the  true  significance  of 
their  being  in  conformity  with  love.  If  love  act  objec- 
tively in  evolving  a  universe,  for  example,  this  action 
must  impose  the  authoritative  sentiment  of  holiness  in 
all  which  it  determines  or  conditions.  Holiness,  inten- 
tional perfectness,  is  imposed  as  the  authority  of  an 
ideal  which  thus  demands  that  it  ought  to  be  actualized. 
Though  this  objective  action  be  subject  to  conditions, 
limitations,  opposition,  or  possible  defeat,  yet  if  it  pur- 
pose the  best,  that  purpose  is  perfect,  and  therefore 
holy.  Perfectness  of  intention,  the  holy,  is,  then,  the 
authoritative  sentiment  which  love  founds  in  all  which 
it  determines,  conditioned  or  unconditioned. 

Art  aims  to  copy  certain  ideals  in  material  forms,  that 
is,  seeks  to  copy  mental  conceptions.  To  the  extent  it 
succeeds  in  actually  representing,  on  the  canvas  or  in 
marble,  for  example,  these  mental  structures  termed 
"ideals,"  the  artist's  work  is  said  to  approximate  perfec- 
tion. In  the  respects  in  which  the  material  copy  fails 
to  fully  represent  the  ideal,  such  material  copy  is  defec- 
tive. The  ideal,  therefore,  is  the  criterion  or  authority 
according  to  which  action  approves  or  disapproves  itself. 

Thus,  also,  in  conditioned  self-determination  the  ac- 
tion recognizes  the  ideal  as  the  sacred,  which  cannot  be 
marred,  however  much  the  realizing  action  may  fail  to 


BEING,  AS   CONCEIVED. 


63 


interpret  or  copy  it.  This  sacredness  of  the  ideal  in  the 
intentions  is  one  with  the  holy,  that  which  is  untarnish- 
able.  The  copy  or  model  may  be  defective,  marred,  or 
destroyed,  but  the  ideal  is  unimpaired.  Hence  the 
ideal  personal  nature  or  character  is  holy,  though  the 
enacted  realization  may  be  or  may  become  unholy.  But 
this  authority  of  the  ideal  is  not  because  of  its  unreality, 
but  because  of  its  conceded  perfection. 

But  ideal  perfection  cannot  be  authoritative  unless  it 
is  realizable,  or  has  been  actually  determined.  That  is 
to  say,  there  can  be  no  such  reality  as  moral  authority 
or  obligation  in  the  universe  without  the  ultimate  oneness 
of  perfect  act  and  thought.  I  may  picture  to  myself  an 
ideal  manhood  to  which  I  would  gladly  measure  up  in 
practice,  but  I  can  feel  no  obligation  to  measure  up  to 
it,  or  condemnation  for  neglect  or  failure  to  actualize  it, 
if  actual  perfection  exists  nowhere,  not  even  in  God. 
And  men  would  never  dream  of  actualizing  an  ideal  self 
but  for  the  fact  that  its  moral  demand  is  pushed  upon 
the  conscience  of  each  one  of  them  by  an  actualized 
perfect  who  conditions  their  dependent  being.  This 
"  moral  imperative  "  arises  in  the  structure  of  the  human 
soul  without  giving  any  account  of  itself  other  than  that  it 
is  the  sentiment  of  the  independent  action  which  posits 
and  maintains  in  men  the  conditions  to  intentional 
self-determination. 

But  the  Independent,  whose  action  maintains  the 
structure  of  dependent  persons,  cannot  impose  this 
moral  imperative  unless  he  himself  is  actually  perfect. 
Actual  perfection,  or  perfect  action,  alone  places  the 
independent  Being  in  a  position  in  which  his  nature 
imposes  what  ought  to  be  the  nature  of  all  other  action. 
If  perfection  could  be  nowhere  determined,  realized,  en- 


64  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

acted,  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  moral  authority. 
Authority  based  upon  anything  else  than  actual  perfec- 
tion is  not  moral.  We  err  if  we  suppose  that  morality 
derives  its  authority,  or  imperative  character,  from  its 
being  "  capable  of  universal  utility."  Universal  utility  is 
an  assumption  which  can  be  verified  only  by  accumu- 
lating universal  data ;  hence,  without  such  data  it  is  a 
gratuitous  assumption.  The  moral  imperative  which  is 
perceived  in  that  best  self,  which  each  human  being  re- 
cognizes, is  precedent  to  any  assumption  of  utility.  It 
is  the  absolute  sentiment  of  perfect  intention  evincing  in 
us  the  actual  perfection  of  the  Being  on  whom  our  being 
depends.  No  moral  authority  can  be  thought  or  felt 
except  as  the  imperative  sentiment  of  perfect  action.  It 
is  the  authoritative  sentiment  of  perfection  which  the 
Independent  actualizes  in  each  dependent  person. 

God,  by  actualizing  conscious  perfection  in  himself, 
realizes  absolute  moral  consciousness.  Absolutely  free 
to  be  as  he  is,  the  unconditioned  One,  or  else  to  deter- 
mine himself  as  falling  short  of  the  infinite  consciousness, 
beneath  an  infinite  ideal,  and  thereby  be  conditioned 
and  condemned  by  it,  his  perfect  holiness  appears  in  his 
purposely  realizing  conscious  perfection.  Hence  love, 
his  perfect  action,  which  purposely  actualizes  his  perfec- 
tion, establishes  and  maintains  the  authority  of  perfect 
holiness. 

To  the  extent  to  which  I  am  determined  by  forces 
external  to  me  I  am  necessitated;  in  what  I  am  per- 
mitted to  be  I  am  conditioned ;  in  what  I  choose  I  am 
free.  Entire  necessity  is  found  in  my  physical  nature, 
the  conditioned  in  my  physical  and  intellectual,  freedom 
in  my  moral  nature.  But  the  independent  nature,  freely 
determining  conscious  perfection,  must  be  regarded  as 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  65 

in  all  respects  a  purely  moral  nature.  He  is  subject  to 
no  necessity,  no  condition ;  he  is  absolutely  a  law  unto 
himself.  In  this  conception  of  being  we  see  that  the 
unconditioned  nature  is  a  "wholly  ethical,"  or  moral 
nature ;  that  perfect  action  is  purely  ethical.  The  moral, 
the  intellectual,  and  the  aesthetic  elements,  which  are 
seen  separate  and  largely  independent  of  each  other  in 
man,  have  their  original  oneness  in  the  ethical  nature  of 
perfectly  self-determined  being. 

Moral  authority  has,  as  seen  above,  its  original  ground 
in  God's  actual  perfection.  This  perfection  is  the  ulti- 
mate moral  authority  to  the  universe,  in  both  its  crea- 
tive and  created  elements,  independent  and  dependent. 
To  the  dependent  it  is  superimposed,  to  the  independent 
it  is  self-realized,  and  hence  self-imposed.  The  infinite 
awe,  termed  the  "  holy,"  is  the  authoritative  sentiment 
of  the  perfect.  The  moral  imperative  in  God  or  man  is 
the  authority  of  a  realized  infinite,  an  actual  perfect.  A 
sentiment  has  no  efficiency  to  compel  obedience,  but 
cannot  be  ignored  or  disobeyed  without  a  resulting  deg- 
radation to  the  being  who  rejects  it,  though  the  sentiment 
abides  unimpaired. 

The  holy  is  authoritative  in  that  it  imposes  upon 
finite  persons  the  obligation  to  be  or  do  as  in  accordance 
with  the  perfect.  Its  authority  is  practical,  since  the 
person  must  experience  defect  or  fault  to  the  extent  he 
neglects  or  rejects  it.  Its  authority  is  wholly  ?noral,  for 
the  reason  that  it  does  not  compel  attention  or  obedi- 
ence ;  the  person  may  attend  or  neglect,  obey  or  dis- 
obey, at  will.  Its  authority  is  independent  in  that  it  is 
the  self-sustained  sentiment  of  perfect  being.  It  is  the 
sentiment  of  God,  the  absolute  imperative  for  all  eternity. 
Hence  we  must  recognize  the  absolute  ground  of  moral 

5 


66  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

obligation  in  the  actual  perfect ;  and  since  the  sentiment 
of  holiness  arises  in  actual  or  actualizable  perfectness,  it 
is  clear  that  free  devotion  to  perfectness  of  intention,  in 
God  or  man,  is  holy. 

Disobedience  to  the  sentiment  of  the  perfect,  by 
choosing  to  determine  his  nature  as  beneath  perfection, 
cannot  be  thought  of  the  unconditioned  person  without 
thinking  of  him  as  having  abandoned  unconditioned 
being.  For  did  he  reject  his  conception  of  perfect  being, 
he  must  become  conscious  not  only  of  self-degradation, 
but  also  of  a  moral  authority  over  him  in  the  rejected 
conception,  which,  though  abandoned,  abides  unimpaired 
as  a  realizable  ideal,  abides  as  the  criterion  of  what  he 
ought  to  be,  and  thus  conditions  and  condemns  him. 
Therefore,  to  think  of  the  unconditioned  nature,  we 
must  think  of  unconditioned  action  as  purposely  enact- 
ing a  perfection  in  which  holiness  is  founded  and  duty 
anticipated.  Thus  love,  the  unconditioned  nature,  founds 
the  holy  as  the  quality  of  its  intention. 

To  say,  What  God  ought  to  be  he  must  be,  ex- 
presses his  holiness  as  imposed  duty.  But,  to  say, 
God  is  what  an  unconditioned  person  must  be,  implies 
absolute  holiness  as  a  quality  of  unconditioned  being,  a 
quality  of  infinite  love.  In  man's  dependent  nature  is 
the  consciousness  of  an  ideal  self,  obedience  to  which  is 
duty,  but  supreme  devotement  to  which  is  a  love 
which  anticipates   duty. 

The  beautiful  is  that  in  perfectness  which  gives 
pleasure.  Pleasure  is  derived  from  contemplating  an 
ideal,  but  especially  from  the  possession  or  achieving 
of  that  ideal  in  realization.  Doubtless  there  is  a  satis- 
faction or  appreciation  derived  in  "  the  good,"  when  it 
is  attained  in  the  practical  realization  of  an  ideal.     But 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED. 


67 


pleasure,  rightly  discriminated,  results  from  such  practi- 
cal realization,  not  because  it  is  a  good,  but  because  of 
its  perfectness.  Perfectness,  whether  ideal  or  real,  thus 
distinguished  as  pleasurable,  is  the  beautiful.  The 
fact  that  it  is  perfectness  which  gives  pleasure,  irrespec- 
tive of  practical  good,  shows  that  the  beautiful  is  a 
sentimental  quality  of  the  perfect ;  and  that  love,  the 
perfect  nature  of  God,  has  in  it  "  the  perfection  of 
beauty." 

That  the  beautiful  arises  as  a  quality,  or  property,  of 
the  perfect  is  further  evinced  in  its  close  association 
with  the  holy,  —  so  close,  indeed,  as  to  make  it  almost  a 
question  if  it  is  not  a  sub-quality  of  the  holy.  As  the 
origin  of  moral  authority  is  found  in  the  perfect,  we  find 
also  in  that  authority  the  primary  differentiation  of 
pleasure  and  pain.  Conscious  self-degradation,  which 
comes  of  ignoring  or  disobeying  the  perfect,  has  the  ab- 
sence of  a  positive  pleasure,  and  also,  the  presence  of 
displeasure,  —  in  human  terms,  pain  or  agony.  The  ne- 
cessary implication  of  intrinsic  pain  in  the  consciousness 
of  self-degradation  by  rejection  of  the  perfect,  implies 
the  alternative  that  the  realization  of  the  perfect  is  the 
source  of  intrinsic  pleasure.  Hence  we  conclude  that 
love,  the  nature  of  perfect  action,  has,  consciously,  in 
it  both  the  authoritative  sentiment  of  holiness  and  the 
pleasurable  sentiment  of  beauty.  It  is  impossible  to 
think  of  God  as  perfect  action  without  thinking  that 
he  experiences  infinite  rapture. 

The  good,  or  goodness,  though  an  expression  often 
used  in  the  sense  of  the  perfect  nature,  falls  short  of 
expressing  more  than  a  quality  of  that  nature.  We  may 
say,  God  is  good ;  but  not,  The  good  is  God.  The 
latter  phrase  expresses  merely  the  empty  abstraction  of 


68  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

an  impersonal  deity.  To  say,  The  nature  of  God  is 
good,  is  correct  as  to  a  single  quality  of  his  nature,  but 
the  good  is  not  God,  nor  the  nature  of  God.  It  is  but 
one  of  the  qualities  which  infinite  love,  his  nature, 
founds.  In  like  manner  it  may  be  said,  he  is  holy, 
sublime,  or  all- wise,  but  these  terms  merely  affirm  cer- 
tain qualities  or  manifestations  of  his  nature.  It  cannot 
be  made  clear  to  thought  that  goodness,  holiness,  truth, 
or  beauty  is  God  or  his  nature  ;  they  are  not,  one  or 
all,  identical  in  thought  with  love,  his  self-determining 
action.  Since  the  good  is  only  a  quality  of  action,  it  is 
not  real,  except  when  determined  by  some  reality.  As 
a  quality  is  nothing  other  than  a  property  of  some  ac- 
tual being,  it  is  a  chimera  unless  it  is  realized  in  action. 

Chief  good  is  the  satisfaction  of  love.  It  is  the  high- 
est practical  excellence,  or  worth,  of  being;  the  highest 
practical  satisfaction  of  the  perfect  nature  to  himself, 
and  of  finite  beings  to  themselves,  individually  and  as  a 
whole.  Being,  alone,  has  positive  good.  Non-being,  or 
non-existence,  is  nothing,  contains  no  possibilities,  is 
worthless.  It  cannot  be  thought  good  in  any  but  a  nega- 
tive sense ;  in  which  it  may  be  deemed  a  less  evil  than 
abused,  self-degraded  being.  But  it  cannot  be  a  positive 
good,  although  there  may  be  modes  of  being  which  are  so 
evil  as  to  be  worse  then  worthless.  Any  type  or  mode  of 
being  which  has  in  it  a  satisfaction,  interest,  or  possibility 
better  than  non-being  has  the  quality  of  goodness  or  the 
good.  And  any  such  being  which  realizes  perfection 
of  its  type  attains  its  chief  good.  Hence,  chief  good 
signifies  the  highest  practical  satisfaction  or  worth  of 
true  being ;  and  it  is,  therefore,  correct  to  affirm  of  the 
perfect  Being  that  he  realizes  infinite  good. 

Since    the   possibility  of   good  can  be  thought  only 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  69 

of-  being,  it  subsists  for  dependent  beings  in  two 
factors,  namely,  the  conditions  of  such  beings,  and  their 
self-determination  in  the  use  of  these  conditions.  Hence, 
the  good  of  being  is  achieved  subjectively. 

For  the  independent  being  the  possibilities  for  good 
are  in  but  one  factor,  self-determination.  Inasmuch 
as  the  unconditioned  person  must  be  thought  as  real- 
izing infinite  being,  his  action  must  found  the  infinite 
good.  The  infinite  good,  then,  is  not  identical  with 
love,  but  is  its  satisfaction,  a  practical  quality  or  prop- 
erty of  absolute  perfection. 

But  all  these  qualities,  the  true,  the  holy,  the  beautiful, 
and  the  good,  must  each  and  all  be  but  illusions  unless 
they  are  enacted ;  each  and  all  must  be  merely  conven- 
tional unless  they  are  founded  in  independent  action. 
If  they  are  nowhere  so  realized  it  must  remain  an  open 
question  whether  they  are  real  or  realizable.  Hence, 
without  action  of  a  nature  which  realizes  them  as  its 
qualities  they  must  remain  in  the  region  of  myth.  Since 
a  quality  is  nothing  but  a  property  of  action,  "  the  highest 
good"  can  mean  nothing  other  than  the  highest  prac- 
tical worth  of  being.  "  Absolute  truth,"  the  conscious- 
ness of  perfect  being,  the  infinite  ideal,  cannot  be  essen- 
tial truth  except  as  realized  in  perfect  personality.  We 
may  say  that  relative  truth  is  harmony  with  absolute 
truth,  but  both  are  only  as  our  minds  construe  things 
unless  absolute  truth  is  realized  in  perfect  action.  So, 
also,  the  holy  would  be  a  superstition  and  beauty  a  dream 
unless  founded  in  actual  perfection. 

It  is  equally  plain  that  unconditioned  action  cannot 
realize  them,  as  obeying  or  seeking  them  as  objects; 
for  in  that  case  such  action  would  be  conditioned  by 
them,    and   hence    could   not    be   the   unconditioned 


yQ  THE  EVOLUTION  OP  LOVE. 

nature.  Therefore,  action  which  can  realize  these  infi- 
nite qualities  must  be  the  action  which  founds  them. 

But,  inasmuch  as  the  fact  of  my  own  dependent  being 
pushes  upon  me  the  fact  of  the  independent  being,  and 
the  independent  must  be  unconditioned,  or  perfect,  being, 
and  perfect  being  is  perfect  action,  and  perfect  action  is 
love,  nothing  can  be  more  real  than  that  perfect  nature, 
love,  whose  practical  satisfaction  is  the  supreme  good, 
that  self-consciousness  which  is  absolute  truth,  that 
authoritative  sentiment  which  is  the  holy,  or  that  fountain 
of  pleasure,  infinite  beauty. 

Love  is  not  to  be  classed  with  these  qualities,  but  is 
that  unconditioned  action  in  which  they  are  founded. 
Love  is  the  only  kind  of  action  which  we  can  think 
capable  of  unconditioned  perfection ;  hence,  it  is  our 
only  possible  conception  of  the  nature  of  an  uncondi- 
tioned being.  Any  other  kind  of  self-determining 
action  falls  into  conditions  ;  love,  alone,  is  all- sufficient. 
It  is  independent,  infinite.  It  is  at  once  the  achieve- 
ment and  conception  of  the  infinite  reality,  —  perfect 
being,  rejoicing  in  infinite  truth,  goodness,  holiness,  and 
beauty.  Love,  immutably  self-assured,  independently 
realizing  perfect  being,  gives  those  qualities  living  reality. 

Moreover,  it  is  not  only  unconditioned,  but  all-condi- 
tioning action.  While  it  is  the  fulness  of  self-assured 
perfection  it  is  adequate  to  conceive,  realize,  and  sustain 
a  perfect  system  of  dependent  being  evermore.  Only 
that  which  is  perfect,  independent  self-determination  can 
be  the  primary  conditioning-power.  And  since  love  is 
the  nature  of  the  unconditioned  it  is  the  nature  of  the 
action  which  establishes  original  conditions. 

Love  is  the  answer  to  the  question  raised  in  the 
former  part  of  this  chapter,  "  What  kind  of  a  being  is 


BEING,  AS  CONCEIVED.  ^ 

he  ?  "  It  is  that  action  which  realizes  perfect  being.  It 
affords  the  only  and  ample  occasion  for  an  objective 
creation,  and  renders  to  each  dependent  person  a  full 
account  of  the  one  imperious  fact,  —  his  own  dependent, 
yet  self-determining  being.  Reality  is  action,  action  is 
life,  perfect  action  is  love  ! 


7 2  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


CHAPTER   III. 

BEING,    AS   CONDITIONED. 
In  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being.  —  Saint  Paul. 

The  implications  of  being  have  forced  upon  us  the 
conception  of  an  unconditioned  person  whose  nature  is 
love ;  action  which  is  a  simple  unit,  at  once  the  con- 
sciousness and  realization  of  infinite,  perfect  being, — 
perfectly  self-conscious  in  perfect  self-determination. 
As  it  is  self-conscious  it  is  the  supreme  devotement, 
or  self-determining  act. 

We  have  been  compelled,  also,  to  recognize  in  this 
conception  a  life  which  is  a  perfect  ego,  capable  of 
perfect  altruism ;  or,  in  other  words,  an  egoism  which, 
perfectly  self-dependent  and  self-assured,  is  perfectly 
free  to  evince  his  changeless  perfection  by  unreserved 
devotion  to  other  beings.  This  unreserved  devotion 
to  others  is  what  we  mean  by  "perfect  altruism,"  a 
manifestation,  the  highest  and  clearest,  of  independent 
egoism.  It  is  a  love  which  implies  such  perfect  con- 
sciousness of  egoistic  independence  that  it  can  manifest 
its  ineffaceable  perfection  in  all  the  abandon  of  an  unre- 
served external  devotion  ;  a  manifestation  which  is  an 
eternal  beneficence  and  an  infinite  glory. 

Altruistic  freedom,  let  us  term  this  feature  of  infinite 
love.  Failure  to  grasp  this  characteristic  of  perfect 
being,  we  suspect,  has  been  a  vitiating  weakness  in 
much  of  the  philosophizing  of  the  past.     It  has  ren- 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  ^ 

dered  thinkers  unable  to  think  their  way  out  from  an 
unconditioned  God  to  a  conditioned  universe  which  is 
objective  to  God.  They  have  argued  that,  to  human 
thought,  a  finite  universe  which  is  originated  by  an 
infinite  or  unconditioned  being  is  a  contradiction. 
Hence  they  have  either  denied  the  reality  of  an 
objective  universe,  which  denial  is  pantheism,  or  they 
have  failed  to  affirm  the  reality  of  the  unconditioned 
being,  which  is  atheism,  or,  like  the  school  of  Sir 
William  Hamilton,  they  have  denied  that  God  can  be 
an  object  of  human  thought. 

We  are  not  unaware  that  the  difficult  question  of  con- 
ditioned being  is  :  Can  the  unconditioned  be  thought  to 
erect  objective  being,  without  himself  becoming  condi- 
tioned? And,  further,  Becoming  conditioned,  can  he 
be  thought  as  abiding  in  unconditioned  self-conscious- 
ness ;  or  must  he  pass  into  conditioned  self-conscious- 
ness, and  so  subside  as  an  unconditioned  being? 

To  these  questions  it  were  sufficient  to  answer :  — 

i.  He  assumes  these  conditions  by  himself  establish- 
ing them ;  and  only  an  unconditioned  being  can  be 
thought  capable  of  thus  assuming  them. 

2.  The  same  independent  self-determination  which 
can  be  thought  without  them  must  be  self-conscious 
in  the  action  which  founds  and  sustains  dependent 
being.  The  fact  that  he  consciously  establishes  the 
conditions  to  objective  being,  and  that  this  objective 
action  is  wholly  determined  by  him  keep  before  our 
thought  his  abiding  consciousness  of  his  own  uncon- 
ditioned nature. 

It  is  certainly  plain  that  human  thought  is  condi- 
tioned, but  how  this  argues  that  an  unconditioned 
being  cannot  be  thought  by  us  as  acting  in  relation 


74  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

to  an  object  has  not  been  shown.     That  we  are  unable  to 
discriminate  that  an  absolutely  self-determined  being  can 
conceive  of  relationship  and  act  in  relation  to  objects* 
without  our  losing  the  conception  that  he  consciously 
and  perfectly  determines  his  own  nature,  is  certainly  an 
unwarranted  surrender  of  reason.     True,  he  must  be 
thought  as  a  subject  who  is  related  to  an  object,  but  he 
must  be  thought  as  the  consciously  independent  subject 
whose  nature  is  absolutely  self-determined  and  who  is 
independent  in  choosing  to  establish  that  object.     If 
the  conditioned  nature  of  human  consciousness  were 
wholly  the  result  of  man's  objective  action  we  might 
be   prone  to   think   that   the   divine    self-consciousness 
might,  similarly,   be  the  effect  of  his  objective  action. 
But  there  is  not  even  this  ground  for  our  thinking  that 
his   objective    action   must   efface    the    self-determined 
nature  or  consciousness   of  God.     If  a  human  being 
could    by   any   means   attain   to  unconditioned   action 
or  thought,  it  does  not  follow  that  his  consciousness 
of  that  nature  wherein  he  is  conditioned  and  dependent 
would  be  lost.     It  would  only  show  that  he  has  deter- 
mined in  himself  a  mode  of  knowing  and  acting  dis- 
tinct from  his  relative  and  conditioned  mode.     Can  we 
not  clearly  think  of  an  independent  being  who,  though 
consciously  unconditioned  in  the  determination  of  his 
own  nature,  may  determine  in  himself  a  relative  mode 
of  knowing   and   acting  without  his  being   dependent 
upon  it,  or  his  nature  conditioned  by  it.     The  only  valid 
conclusion  of  this  matter,  arising  from  the  limitations  of 
human  thought,  is  that  we  must  think  of  God's  nature  as 
consciously  independent  and  perfect,  and  also  capable 
of  conceiving  and  maintaining  a  consciousness  of  all 
possible  dependent  objects,  relations,  and  conditions. 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED. 


75 


Moreover,  much  of  the  difficulty  of  this  question 
results  either  from  a  confused  or  whimsical  use  of  the 
terms  "infinite,"  "unconditioned,"  "absolute," etc.  Most 
of  these  thinkers  fail  perfectly  to  emancipate  their  thought 
of  the  infinite  from  the  notion  of  quantity.  Hence  it 
is  not  surprising  that  they  should  aver  that  they  cannot 
think  of  the  infinite  with  the  finite  "  superadded,"  for- 
sooth. But  quantity  is  identical  in  thought  with  limita- 
tion, and  hence  a  quantitative  infinite  is  unthinkable  and 
absurd.  The  infinite,  in  our  thought,  is  perfectly  free 
action ;  hence  it  is  action  which  is  perfectly  independ- 
ent, perfectly  unconditioned  and  absolute,  in  relation 
to  nothing  in  its  self-determination.  These  terms  can 
be  strictly  applied  to  only  perfect  action  and  its  quali- 
ties ;  hence,  only  to  a  perfect  person  and  his  traits. 

But  these  terms  do  not,  in  strict  use,  apply  to  his 
objective  action,  as  thought  by  us,  but  only  to  an  ego 
whose  action  is  perfectly  self-determined  in  unrestricted 
freedom.  And  when  we  think  of  his  determining  a  rela- 
tive mode  of  consciousness  in  himself,  that  conscious- 
ness is  dependent  upon  him,  not  he  upon  it.  Re- 
lation which  may  subsist  between  him  and  this  relative 
mode  of  knowing  and  acting  has  no  previously  con- 
ditioning influence  upon  his  determination  of  his  nature, 
but  simply  expresses  the  form  of  his  act  in  conditioning 
its  existence.  He  is  consciously  independent,  whether 
in  omitting,  establishing,  or  dismissing  finite  conceptions, 
conditions,  and  relations.  They  are  incident  to  his 
determination  of  altruism;  and  altruism  is  dependent 
upon  egoistic  perfection.  If  his  altruistic  determination 
could  be  thought  as  in  some  way  at  the  expense  of 
egoistic  perfection,  or  an  abridging  of  infinite  per- 
fection in  himself,  there  might  be  some  ground  for  the 


76 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


position  taken  in  Hamilton's  philosophy  of  the  uncon- 
ditioned. But  since  love  may  exercise  unrestrained 
benevolence  because  of  its  realizing  self-perfection,  there 
appears  nothing  in  love's  objective  action  to  modify  its 
unconditioned  self-consciousness.  All  that  Hamilton's 
school  can  validly  affirm  is  that  the  determination  of 
divine  altruism,  or  benevolence,  must  be  conditioned. 
This  we  affirm,  in  advance,  by  having  said  that,  while 
altruistic  freedom  is  in  independent  love,  the  deter- 
mination, realization,  carrying  out  of  altruism  must  be 
by  objective  action,  and  therefore  must  be  thought  as 
conditioned.  But  none  can  deny  that  love  abides  ego- 
istically  perfect,  even  when  it  determines  conditioned 
benevolence. 

An  egoism  which  is  perfect  action  must  be  thought 
unsusceptible  to  impairment ;  and  such  egoism  alone 
can  have  perfect  altruistic  freedom,  which  is  the  con- 
dition to  perfect  benevolence.  An  immutably  perfect 
ego  only  can  be  thought  as  infinitely  free,  or  as 
possessing  perfect  objective  freedom.  But  the  fact 
of  an  ego  immutably  perfect  implies  in  it  perfect 
objective,  or  altruistic  freedom.  Hence  perfection 
of  being  must  be  thought  as  a  perfect  egoistic  life, 
perfectly  free  to  an  altruistic  life.  It  is  requisite  to 
the  notion  of  a  perfect  ego  that  there  is  nothing  in  him- 
self that  is  short  of  perfect  freedom  to  act  objectively,  to 
freely  choose  what  he  will  do,  and  in  what  method  and 
according  to  what  plan,  if  any,  he  will  act. 

Our  thought  of  the  perfect  freedom  of  God's  self- 
determined  nature  is  quite  a  different  conception  from 
that  of  his  objective  action  j  the  former  is  independent, 
absolute,  the  latter  is  relative  and  conditioned.  Altruistic 
freedom  is  in  the  former.     It  is  perfect  freedom  to  act 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  yy 

objectively,  or  not,  as  the  independent  being  may 
choose.  If  he  choose  to  act  objectively  it  does  not 
change  our  thought  of  his  independent  nature,  but 
simply  requires  us  to  think  his  objective  action  is 
relative  and  conditioned.  Hence  we  must  conclude 
that  the  question  of  harmonizing  absolute  being  with 
his  objective,  relative  action  is  a  question  of  differing 
modes  of  consciousness  in  God,  —  the  absolute  con- 
sciousness and  the  relative  consciousness  ;  thus  carrying 
the  question  back  into  the  independent  nature,  as  a 
philosophic  question,  where  it  belongs. 

If  we  bear  in  mind  that  the  aim  of  human  philosophiz- 
ing cannot  be  to  discover  "  how  being  is  made,"  but 
that  its  true  object  is  to  form  a  conception  which 
harmonizes  and  unifies  the  facts  of  being,  we  may 
get  on  with  this  question  of  absolute  and  relative  modes 
of  consciousness  in  God.  It  is  not  our  task  to  show 
how  they  subsist,  but  to  keep  our  thoughts  clear  of  con- 
tradictions while  we  recognize  the  fact  that  they  do 
subsist. 

The  positions  of  all  systems  of  thought,  ancient  and 
modern,  which  have  failed  here  have  taken  for  granted 
that  such  contradiction  is  unavoidable  ;  their  position 
is  substantially  this,  namely  :  The  consciousness  of  re- 
lation, in  God,  must  cancel  his  consciousness  of  absolute 
being.  But  this  is  a  gratuitous  assumption.  They  who 
hold  to  the  doctrines  of  Nescience  must  make  good 
this  assumption  before  they  can  rationally  advance  their 
theories. 

Relative  consciousness,  or  consciousness  of  relation,  is 
knowledge  of  that  which  is,  or  is  known,  in  relation  to 
other  things  or  thoughts.  The  absolute  is  that  which 
can  be  and  be  known  of  itself  without  the  existence  of 


7 8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

any  thing  or  thought  other  than  itself.  Nothing  can 
realize  this  latter  definition  except  action  which  is  per- 
fectly conscious  of  itself  as  perfectly  self-determined 
reality.  Hence,  the  absolute  is  the  only  consciously 
and  perfectly  self-determined  unit.  It  is  unnecessary  and 
absurd  to  think  that  this  unit  must  forfeit  or  abate 
his  consciousness  of  his  own  nature  because  of  any 
conceptions  which  he  may  have  of  any  or  all  other 
modes  of  being. 

Further,  he  must  be  thought  less  than  perfect  if  he 
is  not  conscious  of  every  possibility  and  implication  of 
thought  or  act  or  of  every  significance  and  minutia  of 
a  theory  of  his  own  being.  This  is  the  same  as  saying 
that  he  must  be  less  than  independent  if  he  cannot  be 
conscious  of  a  perfect  relative  conception  ;  and  he  must 
be  thought  less  than  perfect  action  if  he  cannot  be  con- 
scious of  such  theory  or  conception  without  losing  con- 
sciousness of  himself  as  the  self-determined  unit.  Then, 
what  ground  is  there  for  saying  that  if  he  act  objectively, 
project  a  universe,  for  example,  in  accordance  with  this 
conception,  he  can  no  longer  be  thought  by  us  as  ex- 
isting in  all  perfection,  independent  of  all  objective  action 
condition,  or  relation?  His  objective  action  cannot 
be  thought  to  exist  without  him,  but  he  must  be  thought 
as  perfect  being,  independent  of  it.  In  a  word,  he 
cannot  be  thought  to  exist  in  external  activities  except 
as  dependent  upon  internal  perfection.  This  internal, 
or  egoistic,  perfection  is  realized  in  absolute  conscious- 
ness. All  comes  to  this  :  He  is  absolutely  self-deter- 
mined ;  hence,  in  our  thought,  his  nature  abides 
consciously  absolute  and  as  independent  of  all  external 
action  which,  however  vast,  he  may  put  forth. 

God's  determination  of  relative  consciousness  in  him- 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  79 

self  appears  in  his  freedom  to  form  a  relative  concep- 
tion, and  thus  consciously  differentiate  thought  and 
thing.  This  differentiation,  as  we  must  see,  is  logically 
the  true  beginning. 

Is  it  clear  to  our  reason  that  the  absolute  unit,  the 
perfectly  independent  person,  who  in  infinite  freedom 
determines  his  own  nature,  is  also  free  to  form  a  con- 
ception of  the  relative  ?  If  he  cannot  he  has  no  mode 
of  knowledge  except  self- consciousness,  and  this  only 
as  he  acts  it,  and  only  in  the  one  mode  of  action,  the 
absolute.  This  is  a  notion  of  the  self-determined  One 
so  cramped  and  stiff  that  he  cannot  even  conceive  of 
anything  other  than  action,  or  of  any  mode  of  action 
other  than  absolute.  This  is  infinite  freedom  of  being 
which  is  under  bonds  to  a  finite  necessity  to  think  or  do 
nothing.  He  is  shut  up  to  a  necessity,  —  is  neither  inde- 
pendent nor  infinite. 

The  fallacy  of  this  whole  matter  is  in  thinking  of 
God's  nature  as  being  subject  to  modification  by  his 
objective  thought  or  act,  and  thus  dependent  upon 
these  in  the  same  sense  in  which  a  dependent  nature  is 
gradually  developed  by  interaction  with  external  forces. 
But  the  only  clear  thought  of  his  nature  is  that  it  is 
absolutely  self-determined ;  and  this  absolutely  self-de- 
termined nature  is  self-conscious  in  positing  any  thought 
or  action  which  he  wholly  determines,  and  which  is 
wholly  dependent  upon  him.  It  is  a  degrading  an- 
thropomorphism to  suppose  that  he  cannot  even  con- 
ceive of  aught  less  than  himself  without  modifying  his 
absolutely  self-determined  nature,  as  human  thoughts 
and  doings  modify  human  character.  But  the  one  is 
independent  being,  the  other  is  dependent  becoming. 
Can  the  being  who  is  a  perfect  person  conceive  of 


So  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

any  other  than  perfect  action?  Only  an  affirmative 
answer  to  this  question  is  thinkable.  Yet  this  answer 
decides  the  entire  question  of  conditioned  being.  For, 
the  moment  we  recognize  that  the  being  who  is  the 
unit  of  act  and  thought  conceives  that  which  is  other 
than  absolute  self-determination,  we  thereby  accept  the 
fact  that  he  is  conscious  of  distinguishing  this  concep- 
tion from  the  action  which  may  give  it  determination. 
If  our  thoughts  are  clear  in  recognizing  this  we  can 
easily  see  that  he  is  able  to  view  thought  and  thing 
severally,  as  concept  and  content,  ideal  and  reality, 
and  related  to  each  other  as  such.  In  a  word,  God, 
the  self-conscious  unit  of  thought  and  act,  may  be  re- 
garded as  also  conscious  of  unrealized  conceptions,  and 
hence  must  be  conscious  of  thought  and  act  as  dual, 
separate  and  correlated. 

And  since  in  his  perfect  nature  there  is  perfect 
altruistic  freedom,  he  may  be  thought  as  conceiving  a 
perfect  altruistic  scheme.  Such  a  scheme  is  a  concep- 
tion of  an  objective  universe,  and  implies  a  universe  of 
dependent  persons  who  shall  be  objects  of  his  action 
and  beneficiaries  of  his  altruism.  Their  personality, 
however,  implies  that,  within  conditions,  they  are  self- 
determining  ;  and  this  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  his 
conception  of  a  universe  is  a  scheme  of  thought  which, 
in  part,  depends  upon  others  to  make  it  an  actual  thing. 

This  differentiation  of  thought  and  its  actualization  is 
consciousness  of  form,  as  distinguished  from  the  action 
which  shall  determine  it ;  and  consciousness  of  their  re- 
lation, each  to  the  other.  It  implies  consciousness  of 
the  relative,  the  limited,  conditioned, — a  relative  con- 
sciousness. There  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  human 
reason  to  prevent  our  affirming  the  statement  that  God, 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  gl 

as  the  absolute  unit,  determines  in  himself  the  con- 
sciousness of  distinction  and  relation  between  thought 
and  thing. 

The  determining  the  relative  consciousness  is  the 
dependent  result.  Hence,  the  relative  consciousness 
in  God  is  determined  by  his  perfect  action,  love.  This 
is  the  initiative  of  relation  and  plurality ;  logically,  the 
true  beginning,  or  founding  of  conditioned  existence. 
It  is  also  the  origin  of  limitation,  or  quantity,  and  the 
starting-point  of  succession. 

This  determination  of  a  dependent  mode  of  con- 
sciousness in  God  implies  that  he  may,  in  his  infinite 
freedom,  determine  in  himself  many  distinct  modes  of 
consciousness,  all  consciously  dependent;  yet  in  his 
absolute  nature  he  is  self-conscious  as  the  independent 
founder  of  all. 

The  two  modes  of  consciousness,  the  absolute  and 
the  relative,  stand  boldly  out  to  our  reason  because  of 
our  unavoidable  recognition  of  (i)  the  absolute  nature 
of  the  independent  self-determination  of  God,  and 
(2)  the  determination  of  relative  consciousness  implied 
in  his  conception  of  relationship.  The  absolute  self- 
consciousness  is  not  conditioned  by,  or  dependent  upon, 
the  relative,  but  abides  in  its  distinct  mode  of  being. 
The  relative  is  posited  by,  and  dependent  upon  the 
absolute.  It  is  the  child  of  the  independent,  "  the 
begotten  of  the  Father ;  "  and  so  far  as  we  can  know 
or  think,  "  the  only  begotten." 

In  the  order  of  God's  relative  consciousness  is 
the  going  forth  of  his  objective  action.  Hence,  the  crea- 
tion of  an  objective  universe  must  be  thought  as  the 
action  of  God,  according  to  his  relative  consciousness, 
—  the  action  of  "  the  only  begotten." 


g2  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

We  must  think  of  the  independent  as  at  once  uncon- 
ditioned and  yet  free  to  be  ever  in  process  of  relative 
self-determination.  The  consciousness  of  this  relative 
self-determination  we  have  designated  "the  begotten," 
the  formal  expression,  "  the  Logos."  Nor  can  we  see 
that  any  violence  to  thought  is  committed  by  designat- 
ing this  mode  of  conscious  self-determination  by  the 
term  "person." 

The  relative  consciousness  in  God  is  the  nexus  be- 
tween the  infinite  and  the  objective  finite ;  the  bridge 
by  which  thought  passes  out  from  the  infinite  unit  to  the 
finite  many.  To  find  this  passage  has  been  the  grand 
effort  and  failure  of  philosophy  in  ancient  and  modern 
times.  No  triangulation  of  regressive  thought  has  ever 
been  able  to  span  this  chasm. 

The  relative  consciousness  in  God  is  the  primus  of 
serial  being,  the  first  in  the  order  of  succession,  the  pri- 
mary consciousness  of  conditioned  being.  It  is  the  real 
beginning,  the  "  Word  "  that  was  "  with  God  "  and  "  was 
God."  "The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 
All  things  were  made  by  him ;  and  without  him  was 
not  anything  made  that  was  made." 

But  we  find  this  the  logical  beginning  simply,  but  do 
not  assign  it  a  chronological  date.  We  can  assign  no 
period  when  the  Absolute  refrained  from  objective  action. 
But  we  must,  nevertheless,  think  of  his  conception  of 
relation  and  conditions  as  dependent,  though  eternal ; 
and  therefore  the  relative  consciousness  must  be  thought 
as  only  logically  subsequent  to  and  dependent  upon  the 
absolute. 

Perhaps  a  more  difficult  question  from  our  point  of 
view  is :  Can  love  be  thought  as  perfect  action  without 
altruistic  determination  ;  can  love  be  complete  without 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  g~ 

practical  benevolence?  This  question,  however,  is  an- 
swered in  a  former  chapter  substantially  as  follows : 
Love,  or  supreme  devotement  to  perfection,  is  complete 
whether  as  self-love  it  realize  perfection  independently 
or  as  benevolence,  indirectly.  The  difficulty  which 
attends  the  effort  to  see  this  is  a  certain  anthropomor- 
phism which  regards  love  as  not  complete  unless  it  is 
lavished  upon  some  object.  Because  men  need  an 
object  to  love,  as  an  instrument  through  which  to  realize 
their  ideal,  and  thus  experience  their  highest  self-deter- 
mination, purged  of  selfishness,  we  are  apt  to  regard 
God  as  in  need  of  a  similar  process  by  which  to  realize 
his  own  perfection.  In  man  the  same  need  of  objects 
is  experienced  in  every  department  of  self-realization, 
physical,  emotional,  mental,  and  moral ;  but  the  inde- 
pendent needs  no  indirect  or  related  method  by  which 
to  realize  perfection  in  himself.  Love  is  complete  as 
devoted  realization  of  the  perfect,  whether  that  realiza- 
tion be  wrought  directly  or  indirectly,  with  or  without 
instrumentality.  Perfection  in  God  must  be  thought  as 
directly  self-determined,  while  man's  perfection  is  deter- 
mined by  his  devotement  to  an  object  which  represents 
this  perfection.  Infinite  love  realizes  the  infinite  ideal 
in  itself.  If  the  independent  being  choose  to  form  a 
conception  of  a  perfect  system  of  dependent  being,  that 
conception  must  be  thought  as  dependent  upon  him 
and  conditioned  by  him  ;  it  is  a  conditioned  concep- 
tion, while  his  nature  is  unconditioned.  Perfectly  self- 
determined  being  must  be  thought  as  perfectly  uncon- 
ditioned love ;  and  must  be  thought  such  before  he  can 
be  thought  capable  of  perfect  altruism.  If  we  but  bear 
in  mind  that  love  is  purely  self-determining  action  we 
cannot  fail  to  see  that  its  highest  mode  is  subjective, 


84 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


egoistic.  And  if  we  strictly  adhere  to  this  pure  notion 
of  love,  the  supreme  devotement  of  perfect  self-deter- 
mination, we  shall  have  no  difficulty  in  seeing  that  in  an 
independent  being  it  must  realize  perfect  self-determi- 
nation without  need  of  objective  instrumentality. 

Perfect  self-determination  must  be  thought  absolute  in 
knowledge  and  power,  hence  can  actualize  perfection 
directly,  not  conditioned  by  time,  space,  or  means.  It 
is  not  dependent  upon  objects  of  love  as  indirect  means 
of  realizing  perfection.  Dependent  persons,  such  as 
we  are,  must  be  led  to  apprehend  our  ideal  self  and 
actualize  it  in  our  highest  self-determination  by  means 
of  altruistic  methods.  We  must  "  lose  our  lives  that  we 
may  find  them."  All  our  love  for  others  reacts  to 
achieve  our  highest  self-determination,  and  thus  proves 
to  be  pure  self-love  purged  of  selfishness.  And  this 
pure  self-love,  which  is  the  best  possible  for  ourselves,  is 
realized  by  our  being  the  best  possible  for  others. 
This  exhibits  the  subjective  oneness  of  love  and  self- 
love,  —  exhibits  the  unselfish  freedom  of  a  perfect  self- 
love,  pure  altruism. 

But  as  the  independent  self-love  of  God  is  directly 
self-determined,  it  is  independently  the  best  for  himself, 
and  independently  capable  of  being  the  best  for  a  de- 
pendent universe.  Hence  it  is  clear  that  altruistic 
determination  in  an  objective  creation  has  nothing  to 
do  with  developing  love  as  the  nature  of  God,  —  is  not 
a  necessity  or  a  condition  to  God's  egoistic  perfection. 
But  on  the  contrary,  his  perfect  being,  in  its  independ- 
ent altruistic  freedom,  is  the  condition  and  opportunity 
which  account  for  the  objective  nature  of  the  universe  ; 
account  for  the  universe  as  other  than  God.  Love,  the 
only  thinkable  nature  of  an  unconditioned  being,  is  in 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  gc 

its  perfect  altruistic  freedom  the  only  thinkable  condi- 
tion which  is  adequate  to  the  projectment  of  objective 
being.  Here  we  shake  off  the  last  shred  of  pantheistic 
philosophy,  Hindoo,  Greek,  or  German. 

Pantheism  is  but  a  confession  of  inability  to  think 
its  way  out  from  infinite  to  finite  being ;  and  hence 
surrenders  the  solution  of  finite  being  and  stultifies  the 
individual  self-consciousness  of  man.  Whether  as  a 
theory  that  the  universe  is  God,  or  God  is  the  universe, 
or  that  God  and  the  universe  are  necessary,  co-existing 
phases  of  being,  it  cannot  be  held  without  contradic- 
tion. According  to  pantheism  there  is  either  no  inde- 
pendent or  no  dependent  being.  Its  teachers  have 
failed  to  recognize  unconditioned  being  as  perfect  ac- 
tion, failed  to  see  that  perfect  action  is  perfectly  devoted 
self-realization,  failed  to  recognize  this  as  infinite  self- 
love,  and  failed  to  see  that  infinite  self-love  has  infinite 
altruistic  freedom,  is  infinite  love,  and  implies  the  infinite 
freedom  of  perfect  unselfishness.  They  have  made 
their  failures  by  regarding  the  universe  as  in  some  way 
necessitated ;  regarding  the  infinite  as  in  some  way  im- 
pelled or  driven  to  phenomenal  methods  to  attain  self- 
consciousness.  They  have  dragged  the  infinite  into 
finite  conditions,  and  yet  have  accounted  for  nothing ; 
or,  like  Fichte,  have  concluded  that  finite  being  is  but 
a  dream,  and  human  knowledge  "  but  the  dream  of  a 
dream." 

The  first  thing  to  account  for  is  the  fact  of  finite 
being,  the  individual  self-perception  of  man  ;  not  the 
reason  why  man  or  the  universe  exists,  but  the  condi- 
tion upon  which  they  can  exist.  We  find  this  condition 
in  the  perfect  altruistic  freedom  of  independent  self-love  ; 
a  freedom  which  neither  abridges,  impels,  nor  determines, 


86  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

but  illustrates  infinite  self-love,  the  unconditioned  na- 
ture of  an  ego  whose  perfection  is  not  susceptible  to 
impairment  through  endless  altruistic  determination. 
We  find  in  this  unconditioned  love  no  necessity  nor 
compulsion  to  altruistic  benevolence.  Compulsion  can- 
cels benevolence.  We  find  nothing  in  God's  objective 
action  that  is  a  condition  to  his  perfect  self-determina- 
tion. We  find,  simply,  an  infinite  love  which  needs  no 
indirect  methods  by  which  to  achieve  perfect  self-deter- 
mination, as  man  needs,  but  which,  in  its  direct,  un- 
related, independent  realization  of  perfect  being,  is 
perfection  for  himself;  and  is  hence  capable  of  perfect 
beneficence  to  others ;  and  this  love,  in  its  egoistic 
independence,  is  identical  with  perfect  self-love,  the 
self-sustained  egoism  which  is  adequate  to  endless 
altruism.  This  is  perfect  altruistic  freedom,  as  implied 
in  infinite  egoistic  love. 

We  have  said  that  a  perfect,  that  is,  a  perfectly  free, 
altruism  is,  to  our  thought  the  highest  exponent  of 
egoistic  perfection.  But  this  does  not  imply  that  ego- 
istic perfection  is  determined  by  means  of  it;  but  it 
does  imply  that  egoistic  perfection  is  self  sufficient,  self- 
secure,  so  as  to  be  infinitely  free  to  determine  love's 
altruistic  benediction,  without  subjective  reserve,  for- 
ever. Thus  love  appears  to  our  thought  as  determining 
a  higher  and  a  lower  life, — the  higher  life  of  independent 
being,  the  lower  life  of  finite  self-determination  in  rela- 
tion with  dependent  being.  The  higher  is  the  perfec- 
tion of  unconditioned,  the  lower  is  the  perfection  of 
conditioned  consciousness. 

Then  let  it  be  steadily  held  in  view  that  the  grand 
demand  upon  our  system  is  to  account  for  our  personal 
existence ;  and  that  this  fact  is  accounted  for  in  finding 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  87 

in  independent  self-love  the  freedom  to  create  or  not 
create  ;  and  in  either  case  to  be  self-determined  perfec- 
tion in  himself.  The  perceived  fact  of  our  dependent 
existence  evinces  that  he  chooses  to  create  ;  his  freedom 
so  to  choose  offers  a  full  account  of  our  existence,  —  a 
full  account  of  "  Being,  as  Conditioned." 

The  reason  why  he  chooses  to  create  dependent 
beings  is  not  concerned  in  this  question,  or  in  any  way 
needed  that  we  may  see  the  co-existence  of  conditioned 
with  unconditioned  action  in  God,  or  the  co-existence 
of  conditioned  beings  with  the  unconditioned  One. 
"  The  reason  why  "  concerns  the  intention,  or  meaning, 
of  our  existence,  but  not  the  fact.  Doubtless  pantheis- 
tic theories  are  prompted  from  supposing  that  dependent 
being  must  be  accounted  for  by  showing  some  necessity 
for  it,  and  hence  place  that  necessity  in  a  necessitated 
unit,  which  may  be  termed  either  God  or  universe,  and 
of  which  dependent  beings  are  but  temporary  phenom- 
ena. Thus  self-conscious,  dependent  being,  which  is 
the  grand  problem  to  be  solved,  is  not  solved,  but 
ignored. 

Now  that  we  see,  in  self-love's  perfect  self-determina- 
tion, the  freedom  of  the  unconditioned  ego  to  determine 
an  objective  system  of  being  in  harmony  with  that  love, 
we  might  offer  the  implied  reason  why  he  chooses  so 
to  do,  but  this  we  defer  to  the  discussion  of  "The 
Implications  of  Love,"  Part  Second. 

The  Altruistic  Spirit.  —  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  think 
of  that  Person  who  is  immutably  perfect  —  perfect  for  the 
infinite  good  and  pleasure  of  his  own  being  and  perfect 
to  afford  the  highest  good  of  other  possible  beings  — 
without  recognizing  in  him  the  spontaneity,  or  spirit, 
of    infinite    benevolence ;   a   spirit    prompting    to   his 


88  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

objective  determination  of  conditions  upon  which  may 
arise  any  and  all  forms  of  being  that  may  realize  a 
beneficent  existence. 

But  to  be  more  explicit :  We  have  seen  that  love, 
his  nature,  is  supreme  devotement  to  perfection  of 
being.  Take  this  with  its  realization  of  God's  uncon- 
ditioned egoism,  in  which  is  perfect  freedom  to  altruistic 
determination,  and  the  fact  stands  out  to  our  view  that 
his  nature,  love,  is  devotement  to  all  being  in  which  it 
may  realize  an  ideal.  Hence,  we  must  recognize  a 
tendency  in  love  to  action  which  can  realize  an  ideal 
objective  life,  —  indeed  an  objective  life  which  may  com- 
prehend all  ideals  which  may  contribute  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  perfect  objective  being. 

The  term  "  spirit,"  is  used  in  at  least  two  different 
senses :  first,  it  means  the  self-determining  ego,  in 
which  the  consciousness  of  personality  resides.  The 
term  has  this  sense  in  the  sentence,  "  God  is  a  spirit." 
Secondly,  the  term  "  spirit"  represents  the  synthetic  senti- 
ment, general  disposition  or  tendency  of  the  intention 
and  qualities  which  are  established  by  self-determination. 
This  is  the  general  out-flow,  or  spontaneity,  in  which 
every  trait  of  the  nature  and  character  is  represented, 
not  in  severalty,  but  as  a  whole. 

Since  love  is  devotion  to  perfection  of  being,  and  ex- 
periences the  practical  good  of  love-determined  being, 
and  enjoys  perfect  altruistic  freedom,  it  has  the  general 
sentiment  of  devotion  to  the  realization  of  all  possible 
forms  of  love-determinable  being.  Take  the  practical 
good  which  God  knows  there  is  in  the  satisfaction  of 
love,  and  the  practical  good  to  other  beings  which  love 
may  attain  in  the  realization  of  the  several  ideals  which 
may  be  comprehended  in  the  realization  of  an  ideal  ob- 


BEING,  AS   CONDITIONED. 


89 


jective  life,  as  a  whole,  and  we  have  the  benevolent  ele- 
ment in  love's  altruistic  spontaneity.  This  "  altruistic 
spontaneity  "  is  an  altruistic  spirit  in  the  second  above 
described  sense  of  that  term  "  spirit." 

But  it  is  only  a  spontaneity,  not  a  determination,  unless 
it  actually  prompts  to  objective  action.  If  it  so  prompt 
it  is  then  a  self-conscious  determination,  self-consciously 
prompting,  or  urging;  an  objectively  directed  energy ; 
*'  the  altruistic  spirit "  in  the  first  sense  as  above 
described. 

If,  according  to  the  prompting  of  this  spirit,  God  ac- 
tually creates  dependent  objects,  then,  we  must  think, 
the  altruistic  spirit  is  definitely  self-conscious  in  all  his 
objective  action,  —  self-conscious  in  love,  prompting  and 
urging  its  entire  evolution. 

This  prompting  to  objective  being  has  in  it,  of  course, 
love's  devotion  to  perfection,  love's  enthusiasm  for  ac- 
tualizing the  ideal.  Hence  it  is  the  prompting  of  inten- 
tional perfection,  albeit  of  conditioned  perfection.  It  is 
the  intent  to  realize  a  perfect  objective  life.  And  since 
the  holy  is  perfect  intention,  or  intended  perfectness, 
its  prompting  is  wholly  to  perfectness  in  all  objective 
action.  Although  the  working  out  of  love's  ideal  objec- 
tive life  may  involve  a  vast  amount  of  weakness,  defeat, 
delay,  or  opposition  to  its  perfect  determination,  the 
spirit  which  prompts  to  it  must  be  thought  true  to  the 
ideal,  in  its  intent,  throughout  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
realizing  process.  Hence  the  altruistic  spirit  is,  dis- 
tinctively, a  holy  spirit.  Although  the  objective,  condi- 
tioned system  of  being  may  involve  much  of  imperfection 
before  its  perfection  is  attained,  the  spirit  which  urges 
it  is  holy  so  long  as  it  does  not  demand  a  departure 
from  righteousness  or  the  infliction  of  essential  ill  upon 


oo  THE  EVOLUTION  OP  LOVE. 

any  being  in  order  to  condition  the  ultimate  success. 
We  have  seen  in  the  preceding  chapter  that  intending, 
or  purposing,  the  perfect  is  the  holy  in  God ;  and  in- 
tending a  best  or  true  self  is  holiness  in  a  finite  person  ; 
hence  we  can  readily  see  that  the  spirit  which  prompts 
to  the  conditioned  perfection  of  God's  objective  action 
is  the  spirit  of  holiness,  or  the  "  Holy  Spirit." 

We  discern,  then,  in  our  discrimination  of  the  altru- 
istic spirit  of  love,  that  its  prompting  will  be  an  authorita- 
tive sentiment  at  every  point  in  conditioned  being  where 
self  determining  intention  shall  arise,  —  an  authoritative 
sentiment,  urging  to  intentional  devotion  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  ideal,  the  true  life.  This  sentiment  of  holy 
intention  must  abide  as  a  moral  condition  to  every  in- 
tention, divine  or  human,  which  bears  upon  the  deter- 
mination of  personal  character  or  the  attainment  of 
essential  good. 

Whether,  then,  we  think  of  God's  objective  action  as 
creating  and  arranging  primal  chaos,  or  adjusting  the 
conditions  of  the  nicest  shades  of  human  responsibil- 
ity, or  witnessing  his  acceptance  of  human  faith,  there 
must  be  thought  the  self-determined  presence  of  the 
altruistic  spirit,  urging  holy  intention  in  all  conditioned 
being. 

The  inference  to  which  this  matter  comes  is  that  we 
identify  the  u  moral  imperative "  in  man,  termed  the 
authority  of  conscience,  with  the  authoritative  sentiment 
of  the  altruistic  or  holy  spirit,  which,  in  God's  infinite 
nature  prompts  to  objective  holiness  and  benevolence, 
and  is  self-evident  as  moral  authority  which  conditions 
man's  conscious  intentions.  Since  it  does  not  determine 
formal  thought  or  action,  in  man  or  the  objective  uni- 
verse, but  merely  imposes  a  moral  condition  upon  inten- 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  9I 

tions,  it  is  purely  moral  in  its  prompting,  its  condemna- 
tion, or  its  approval. 

The  Determination  of  Altruism  is  necessary  to  give 
it  objective  reality.  Without  such  determination  it  must 
be  thought  as  simply  comprehending  an  infinite  altruistic 
freedom  and  the  altruistic  spirit.  It  is  nothing  more 
than  the  occasion  for  objective  action  unless  God  shall 
choose  to  realize  it  in  objective  fact.  Thus  there  is  in- 
volved in  love  the  original  possibility  of  objective  reality. 
And,  upon  further  consideration,  we  may  see  that  it  im- 
plies motive  to  the  creation  of  real  objects.  But  since 
it  is  clear  that  we  need  not  think  the  nature  of  perfectly 
self-determined  being  is  changed  or  affected  by  his  con- 
ceiving or  founding  objects,  we  must  regard  God  as  at 
once  unconditioned  and  yet  free  to  be  ever  in  process 
of  relative  self-determination. 

Pantheism  cannot  realize  altruism.  A  universe  which 
is  not  objective  to  the  power  that  projects  it  is  not  a 
universe,  but  an  ego ;  does  not  determine  objective 
realities.  Love,  which  realizes  perfect  being  and  hence 
can  afford  unrestrained  altruistic  action,  implies  in  that 
action  objects  which  shall  be  consciously  other  than  the 
unconditioned  being,  —  objects  toward  which,  also,  the 
Unconditioned  shall  realize  that  he  establishes,  or  posits, 
them  as  external  to  himself.  This  is  his  conditioning  of 
externality. 

A  point  in  God's  action  where  he  erects  conditions 
from  which  may  arise  a  spontaneous  self-conscious  act, 
other  than  God's  act,  is  a  realization  of  externality ; 
and  is  action  which  must  be  thought  as  objective  to 
God.  That  self-conscious  external  action  gives  indi- 
vidual unity  to  the  group  of  conditions  upon  which  it 
has  arisen.     This   actor,  or  agent,   that   shall   thus  act 


92  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

originally  —  that  is,  for  himself — consciously  choosing 
to  do  this  or  that,  or  in  any  way  originating  change  in 
and  of  himself,  becomes  thereby  conscious  of  himself 
as  a  being  other  than  God;  and  God  is  thereupon 
conscious  of  a  person  external  to  himself. 

This  new,  self-conscious  being  may  not  be  definitely 
conscious  of  the  conditioning  action  which  constitutes 
his  nature,  nor  apprehend  how  his  own  power  to  act 
arises ;  but  he  is  conscious  of  himself  in  acting  for  him- 
self. This  definite  self-conscious  agent,  who,  though 
dependent,  is  conscious  of  selfhood  as  an  individual 
actor,  self- determining  within  his  conditions,  is  a  real 
object,  external  to  God,  which  meets  the  demand  of 
divine  altruism.  In  him  the  divine  love  realizes  actual 
altruism.  Love's  benevolence  finds  a  real  object,  and 
acting  in  relation  to  him,  is  consciously  beneficent.  It 
is  only  a  universe  of  such  self-conscious,  though  de- 
pendent beings,  that  can  be  such  a  universe  as  the  free 
altruism  of  God  implies. 

Although  we  might  suppose  the  existence  in  the 
mind  of  God  of  a  concept  of  a  perfect  universe,  this 
concept  could  not  be  the  determination  of  altruism 
until  such  concept  became  an  objective  reality;  until 
a  person  or  persons,  definitely  other  than  himself,  were 
established.  This  otherness  must  consist  in  a  definite, 
though  dependent  ego,  —  a  real  being  who  is  a  self  con- 
scious actor.  He  may  be  conscious  of  action  which  is 
not  his  own,  and  yet  conscious  of  his  own  self-origi- 
nated action ;  and  also  that  it  is  the  one  same  con- 
sciousness which  distinguishes  the  action  which  is 
self-originated  from  that  which  is  not  his  own.  I  am 
conscious  of  charming  sensations  of  sight  and  sound 
which  arise  in  me  by  no  choice  or  act  which  I  exert ; 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  93 

but  I  can  avoid  their  charm  by  choosing  to  divert  my 
attention  from  them,  and  thus,  by  my  own  act,  con- 
sciously ignore  them.  Not  only  do  I  distinguish  self- 
originated  action  from  posited  action  within  me,  but  I 
abide  the  same  individual,  perceiving  and  purposing, 
and  remembering  past  perceptions  and  purposes.  This 
finite  ego,  my  self-perceived  being,  is  conditioned  by 
that  class  of  action  termed  above  "  not  my  own."  It 
is  action  which  is  established  by  a  power  other  than 
myself.  It  is  my  nature  ;  but  in  the  action  which  I 
originate  I  am  selt-conscious  and  free,  appropriating 
and  modifying  my  nature,  building  upon  it  or  of  it  my 
self-determined  personality. 

It  is  of  no  consequence  to  ask  how  original  action 
arises  spontaneously  upon  certain  posited  conditions,  or 
passes  from  spontaneous  into  self-determining  action  ; 
for  that  is  but  to  ask  how  being  comes  to  be,  —  a  ques- 
tion which  is  impenetrable  to  human  thought,  and 
besides  has  no  weight  as  against  the  perceived  facts  of 
spontaneous  action  all  around  us,  and  self-determination 
within  us,  arising  upon  posited  conditions. 

God's  objective  action  is  conditioned  actio?i ;  con- 
ditioned by  him  as  the  subject  who  acts  toward  an 
object,  and  also  conditioned  by  the  object  of  his  action, 
thus  establishing  the  relation  between  subject  and  ob- 
ject. His  relative  consciousness  founds  succession,  and 
is,  logically,  the  beginning  point  of  successive  events. 
Hence  love,  when  devoted  to  others,  can  be  realized 
as  conditioned.  Until  altruism  is  so  realized  it  can  be 
thought  only  as  the  altruistic  spirit.  Only  by  objective 
action  can  it  find  determination.  Without  this  it  is 
benevolence  that  is  not  beneficent.  For  an  objective 
universe  there  is  ample  scope  in  the  altruistic  freedom 


94  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

of  love ;  but  its  determination  must  always  imply  condi- 
tioned action.  God  must  be  conscious  of  acting  under 
conditions  when  he  acts  with  reference  to  a  proposed 
object,  and  hence  must  be  thought  as  acting  accord- 
ing to  his  self-determined  relative  consciousness. 

It  is  clear  to  our  thought,  then,  that  love,  which  is 
the  divine  nature,  and  is  perfectly  self-consciousness  as 
infinite  egoism,  expresses  itself  externally  in  restless, 
boundless  activity ;  and  this  objective  activity,  with  all 
its  objects  and  conditions,  is  the  universe. 

The  endless  process  of  the  universe  is  implied  in 
its  existence.  All  theories  which  suppose  a  cyclical 
return  of  the  relative  to  the  absolute,  of  the  finite  to 
the  infinite,  in  the  sense  of  suspension  or  completed 
end  of  finite  being  as  a  whole,  imply  a  limit  or  ex- 
haustion of  the  infinite,  beyond  which  he  cannot  con- 
dition dependent  being.  Of  course,  such  implied 
limitation  is  contradictory  and  absurd.  But  because 
no  such  exhaustion  can  be  thought,  we  must  think  of 
conditioned  being,  as  a  whole,  as  an  endless  develop- 
ment. 

We  positively  affirm  God's  objective  action  upon  the 
ground  of  individual  human  consciousness  alone.  For 
aught  we  can  positively  know,  all  other  world-phenomena 
may  be  part  of  his  subjective  action.  In  forming  such 
a  conception  of  the  independent  as  our  thought  requires 
we  do  not  find  anything  which  we  can  positively  know 
as  external  to  God  except  ourselves,  whom  we  perceive 
as  individual  conscious  power.  By  inference  from  our 
own  conscious  unity  we  may  and  do  conclude  that  all 
objects  which  manifest  themselves  after  our  manner,  or 
order,  in  any  degree,  —  things,  men,  or  animals,  —  are,  like 
ourselves,  individual  beings.     Further,  we  think  of  the 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  gc 

material  world  as  being  a  part  of  God's  objective  action 
because  we  observe  it  as  conditioned.  Possibly  there 
is  in  us  an  instinctive  conviction  that  our  perception  of 
external  objects  is  more  real  and  valid  than  any  exist- 
ing philosophy  of  perception  has  definitely  established. 
Certainly  the  last  word  has  not  been  said  on  that  sub- 
ject. But  in  the  knowledge  of  our  own  definite  unity 
and  free  action,  we  have  firmly  fixed  the  fact  of  objec- 
tive being,  objective  to  God.  This  fact  prevents  our 
thought  from  finding  rest  in  any  form  of  pantheism. 

How  much  of  what  we  term  the  universe  is  God's 
objective  action,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  decide.  Where 
the  line  should  be  drawn  that  distinguishes  the  divine 
ego  from  the  universe,  it  is  not  ours  now  to  know,  for 
the  reason  that  we  have  direct  perception  of  no  other 
beings  but  ourselves.  It  is  true  that  by  sense-percep- 
tion we  perceive  the  earth,  the  heavens,  clouds,  conti- 
nents and  oceans ;  the  seasons  with  their  snows  and 
verdure,  their  flowers  and  fruits  ;  the  animals,  great  and 
small ;  the  sounds  and  songs  of  nature  ;  the  human 
family  with  all  its  busy  activities,  its  signs  of  joy,  suf- 
fering, ambition,  disappointment,  achievement,  and 
quenchless  longing.  But  it  is  by  inference  we  decide 
that  these  are  real  objects ;  and  that  inference  is  based 
upon  our  individual  consciousness. 

When  I  observe  objects  which  reveal  to  my  expe- 
rience and  reason  that  they  are  self  determining,  like  my- 
self, I  am  convinced  they  are  persons.  Upon  such 
conviction  we  treat  each  other  as  free,  responsible 
beings.  Hence  the  responsible  qualities  which  dis- 
tinguish persons,  maintain  relationship  through  the  whole 
family  of  man,  and  develop  all  forms  of  government  and 
law.      Though  this  reasoning  is   valid   in  all    practical 


9 6  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

affairs,  yet  in  deciding  what  may  be  directly  known  we 
must  be  guided  by  the  facts  of  which  we  are  directly 
conscious.  Confined  to  these  we  can  at  least  affirm 
our  individual  being,  dependence,  and  free  action  ;  in  a 
word,  our  individual  personality. 

This  selfhood  is  the  first  fact  which  we  directly  know 
as  objective,  or  external  to  God.  We  know  it  as  objec- 
tive to  God  because  of  our  consciousness  of  perceiving, 
choosing,  purposing,  willing. 

"  Natural  law "  can  be  thought  as  only  the  observed 
order  in  which  God  acts.  It  can  give  us  no  insight  as 
to  where  that  action  in  the  world  passes  from  subject 
to  object,  or  whether  it  is  subjective  or  totally  objective. 
Natural  law  is  simply  a  recognition  that  there  is  about  us 
an  actor,  not  ourselves,  who  observes  a  regular  order  in 
his  action,  observes  harmony  everywhere.  Relative  order 
is  relative  truth  ;  and  love  is  the  content  which  determines 
the  form  of  relative  truth.  This  form  of  truth,  or  order, 
is  not  imposed  upon,  or  accepted  by  love  ;  nor  is  it  made 
in  an  arbitrary  sense  which  implies  it  might  have  been 
made  differently.  But  it  is  a  conception  which  love  de- 
termines as  its  formal  expression.  Let  it  be  steadily  borne 
in  mind  that  the  nature  of  perfect  being  is  perfect  action, 
and  perfect  action  is  love  ;  and  that  such  a  being,  when 
acting  with  reference  to  an  object,  acts  in  the  relation  of 
subject  to  object ;  and  hence  the  relations  established  by 
his  objective  action  must  be  the  forms  of  love's  objective 
expression.  Relations  are  what  they  are,  and  relative 
truth  is  what  it  is,  because  love  is  love. 

The  han7io?iy  of  relative  being  within  itself,  and  its 
harmony  with  the  absolute  being,  has  its  ground  in  the 
initial  harmony  of  absolute  and  relative  consciousness  in 
God.     Harmony  of  relations  imply  the  possible  harmony 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  o7 

of  beings  who  exist  in  relation  to  each  other.  Rela- 
tions are  harmonious  as  they  accord  with  the  relative 
consciousness  of  God ;  and  their  absolute  basis  of  har- 
mony is  in  the  compatibility  of  his  relative  with  his  abso- 
lute consciousness.  This  must  be  thought  for  the  rea- 
son that  love  is  the  one  determining  action  in  God's 
egoistic  and  altruistic  determination. 

Thus  love  appears  as  the  nature  of  that  ultimate  unit 
in  which  alone  thought  can  find  the  basis  of  an  har- 
monious and  possibly  successful  universe.  It  is  that 
action  in  the  universe  which  is  self-sustaining  and  self- 
harmonizing  in  all  forms,  complexities,  and  extensions, 
forever.  It  is  this  alone  which  can  assure  the  philoso- 
phers' claim  that  "  truth  is  a  unit,"  or  justify  the 
saying  that  "  there  is  in  history  a  force,  not  our- 
selves, which  makes  for  righteousness,"  or  inspire  the 
poet  to  sing  :  — 

"  Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again  ; 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers." 

Disharmony  may  arise  in  conditioned  being  only  at 
the  point  where  dependent  beings  are  free  to  originate 
action.  Material  things,  which  never  break  the  harmony 
of  natural  order,  must  be  referred  to  the  action  of  God. 
All  that  we  can  affirm  of  them  is  that  they  must  be 
thought  by  us  as  points  or  groups  of  points  at  which  his 
action  is  perceptible  to  us.  Hence,  in  all  contact  with 
the  world  and  our  own  nature,  our  conscious  action 
must  be  thought  as  in  interaction  with  him.  Around 
and  in  us  at  every  point  are  his  conscious  activities, 
surrounding  and  filling  us  with  ceaseless  changes,  yet 
transcending  all  change  with  immanent  harmony.  Our 
action   must  interact  with   him  or  react  against   him  ; 

7 


98 


THE  EVOLUTION  OP  LOVE. 


acting  upon  his  action,  and  thus,  as  we  purpose,  pervert- 
ing it  or  building  into  it.  To  the  extent  that  our  action 
intimately  articulates  with  his  we  determine  our  progress 
and  realize  his  concept,  or  ideal,  of  our  being.  Failure 
to  so  interact  must  be  to  antagonize  our  conditions, 
pervert  our  nature  and  defeat  his  plan  in  us.  Thus  we 
are  free  in  this  conditioned  self-determination. 

Inferior  beings  may  exist  solely  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
ditioning the  development  of  superior  classes  of  being,  as 
vegetables  afford  conditions  for  the  development  of  ani- 
mals, and  certain  classes  of  animals  condition  the  develop- 
ment of  others ;  and  any  or  all  of  these,  again,  furnish 
conditions  for  the  life  and  development  of  persons.  All 
the  vast  scheme  of  sensitive  nature  may  thus  be  concerned 
in  conditioning  the  maturing  splendors  of  the  personal 
universe ;  and  wholly,  too,  in  accord  with  love,  provided 
the  degree  of  good  realized  by  these  inferior  creatures 
compensates  them  for  the  sufferings  incident  to  their 
being.  Our  position  that  the  universe  is  the  product 
of  love  implies  this  compensation.  Besides,  there  is 
nothing  in  our  knowledge  of  the  lower  animals  to  show 
that  they  do  not  derive  this  compensation.  But  there  is 
much  to  show  that  they  do  ;  which  might  here  be  pro- 
duced if  it  pertained  to  our  line  of  inquiry.  The 
"slaughter-house"  argument  of  atheists,  in  which  they 
dwell  with  so  much  sentiment  upon  the  feeding  of  man 
upon  animals  and  animals  upon  each  other,  has  no 
significance  until  this  question  of  compensations  is  set- 
tled in  their  favor.  That  the  lower  animals  suffer 
agonies  in  the  process  of  their  contributing  to  the  life  of 
others  we  do  not  question,  but  that  the  pleasures  of 
their  being  far  outweigh  these  agonies  is  not  only  alto- 
gether probable  as  fact,  but  is  a  necessary  inference  from 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  gg 

love's  demands.  And  love's  demands  are  affirmed  upon 
higher  and  firmer  grounds  than  any  cosmic  argument  can 
afford.  The  main  factors  which  dominate  all  the  ques- 
tions of  being,  as  conditioned,  are  those  which  establish 
it  as  a  fact ;  namely,  the  nature  of  God  and  the  deter- 
mination of  finite  beings. 

Conditioning  and  Determining  make  up  the  whole  of 
related  action,  —  the  grand  summary  of  "  Being,  as 
Conditioned."  They  are  the  two  functions  of  all  action 
in  which  the  sovereignty  of  God  and  the  personal  freedom 
of  dependent  beings  are  conserved  and  harmonized. 
Failure  to  observe  this  discrimination  has  been  at  the 
bottom  of  the  theological  worry  of  centuries  over  the 
supposed  inconsistency  of  the  "  sovereignty  of  God  " 
and  the  "  freedom  of  the  human  will."  But  bearing  in 
mind  that  objective  action  is  necessarily  and  always 
conditioned,  and  that  the  evolution  of  divine  love 
is  the  conditioning  process  to  the  development  of  a 
self-determining  of  a  finite,  personal  universe,  there  is  no 
need  to  suppose  that  God  must  in  any  instance  over- 
ride the  personal  freedom  of  dependent  beings  in  order 
to  be  thought  "almighty,"  or  able  to  achieve  the 
evolution  of  love.  Moreover,  the  divine  altruism,  seek- 
ing the  highest  perfection  of  dependent  beings,  must 
find  its  highest  determination  in  the  largest  freedom 
possible  to  their  dependent  nature.  Divine  interference 
with  their  personal  self-determination  would  be  the 
defeat  of  altruism  and  a  confession  of  its  failure  to 
achieve  a  successful  universe. 

The  true  scope  of  divine  sovereignty  and  its  glorious 
success  are  in  the  affording  conditions  upon  which  the 
perfection  of  a  personal  universe  shall  be  self-determined. 
The   affording   these    conditions   is    the   evolution   of 


IOO  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

divine  love ;  a  grander  sweep  of  divine  power  than  the 
compulsion  or  annihilation  of  a  universe.  The  deter- 
mination of  their  own  destiny,  in  the  midst  of  these  con- 
ditions, is  the  sphere,  the  responsibility,  and  the  glory  of 
finite  persons. 

These  determinations  may,  indeed,  modify,  distort, 
pervert  the  conditions  which  love  provides ;  hence  its 
infinite  altruistic  freedom  must  afford  further  and  ampler 
conditions  upon  which  such  perversions  may  be  sur- 
vived and  corrected.  Thus,  while  he  posits  conditions 
which  finite  persons  may  modify,  God  must  find  him- 
self unfavorably  conditioned  in  his  effort  to  realize  his 
altruistic  purpose.  But  these  unfavorable  conditions 
but  afford  occasion  for  surmounting  them  :  not  by  over- 
riding the  personal  freedom  of  finite  persons,  but  by 
evolving  further  and  wider  conditions  upon  which  they 
may  remedy  past  abuses. 

Such  has  been  the  history  of  our  planet  and  race. 
Such  is  the  only  view,  clear  to  thought,  which  accounts 
for  the  long  continuance  of  mixed  good  and  ill.  Such 
the  suggestion  of  "  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of 
the  wisdom  and  the  knowledge  of  God." 

To  sum  up  :  From  the  two  facts,  our  being  and 
dependence,  we  have  endeavored  to  trace  their  im- 
plications. In  our  progress  we  have  been  compelled  to 
recognize  :  — 

i.  An  independent,  perfectly  self-determined  ego,  or 
infinite  Person. 

2.  That  he  is  perfect  action,  the  unit  of  "thought 
and  thing,"  the  conscious  actualization  of  infinite 
perfection. 

3.  That  love,  and  love  alone,  is  the  nature  of  that 
action. 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  IOl 

4.  That  love,  realizing  the  infinite,  is  the  grand 
involution  of  all  being ;  hence  :  — 

5.  Love  involves  absolute  truth,  as  the  infinite  ideal, 
realizes  the  supreme  good,  the  holy  and  intrinsic 
beauty. 

6.  That  in  love  is  perfect  altruistic  freedom ;  hence 
it  is  capable  of  perpetual  objective  beneficence  ;  hence 
is  free  to  condition  the  rise  of  an  objective  universe. 

7.  An  objective  universe  is  one  composed  of  beings 
who  are  self-determining  within  conditions ;  which  im- 
plies that  the  Creator  forms  a  conception  of  their  being, 
leaving  the  actualization  of  such  conception  to  condi- 
ioned  beings  themselves. 

8.  This  conception  in  the  divine  mind  implies  the 
differentiation  or  dividing  of  thought  and  thing,  of  ideal 
and  its  realization,  and  their  relations  to  each  other ; 
hence  it  evinces  consciousness  in  God  of  conditions 
and  relations,  the  relative  consciousness,  the  initial  of 
successive  being,  the  formal,  the  logical  discrimination  of 
being,  —  "  the  Word,"  "  the  Begotten  of  the  Father." 

9.  In  the  order  of  the  "  relative  consciousness  "  must 
be  the  putting  forth  of  all  God's  objective  activities,  all 
evolution.  Hence  "  the  Creator,  "  is  God  acting  ac- 
cording to  his  conception  of  logical  relations ;  hence 
his  logical  consciousness,  or  "  begotten  "  consciousness, 
"  the  Son." 

10.  In  infinite  love  there  is  not  only  altruistic 
freedom,  but  the  u  altruistic  spirit,"  which  is  a  self- 
conscious  prompting,  or  urgency,  in  the  infinite  ego  ;  a 
definitely  self-determined  force,  or  mode  of  conscious- 
ness which  prompts  to  the  determination  of  altruistic 
being.  And  since  it  is  a  prompting  to  the  realization  of 
an  ideal,  or  perfect  altruistic  life,  it  discriminates  and 


I02  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

determines  the  holy  intent  of  altruism,  whatever  may  be 
the  vicissitudes,  mishaps,  abuses,  or  woes  attending 
its  conditioned  determination.  Hence  he  is  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

ii.  The  determination,  or  actualization,  of  altruism  is 
the  evolution  of  love,  the  realization  of  an  objective,  or 
personal  universe. 

12.  The  process  of  love's  evolution  determines  the 
conditions  upon  which  dependent  beings  spontane- 
ously arise  and  gradually  realize  self-determination  and 
consequent  personal  identity,  as  dependent,  or  condi- 
tioned, persons.  The  entire  universe  is  conditioned  in 
love ;  although  the  relation  of  many  classes  of  beings 
may  be  but  to  condition  the  determination  of  other 
classes. 

13.  Dependent  persons  are  beings  who  are  con- 
sciously free  in  their  intentions  and  in  the  use  which 
they  make  of  all  their  conditions,  hence  within  their 
conditions  are  self-determining. 

14.  Capable  of  intentional  self-determination,  they  are 
capable  of  determining  themselves  as  either  in  harmony 
or  disharmony  with  their  conditions,  able  to  use  or  abuse 
them,  and  thus  realize  the  intention  of  divine  altruism, 
or  pervert  its  auspices. 

15.  Freedom  of  intention  in  human  beings  is  con- 
ditioned by  a  moral  authority  termed  "  conscience,"  or 
"the  moral  law,"  or  "moral  imperative,"  which,  though 
it  may  be  neglected,  cannot  be  corrupted  as  can  other 
conditions.  It  is  an  independent  sentiment,  which 
imposes  the  obligation  of  moral  purity  upon  human 
intentions  wherein  those  intentions  pertain  to  self-deter- 
mination, and  imposes  altruistic  benevolence  wherein 
our  intentions  pertain  to  other  beings. 


BEING,  AS  CONDITIONED.  IO~ 

It  is  independent  in  that  it  cannot  be  corrupted  or 
modified.  It  is  authoritative  in  that  it  imposes  the  au- 
thority of  the  ideal  upon  the  actual.  It  is  wholly  moral 
in  that  it  does  not  compel  obedience.  It  is  practical  in 
that  personal  innocence,  if  obeyed,  guilt  if  disobeyed, 
result  from  its  moral  behest.  It  is  holy  in  that  it 
prompts  to  perfect  intention.  It  is  altruistic  in  that  it 
prompts  to  benevolence  toward  others.  It  is  identical 
with  the  altruistic  spirit  in  God,  in  that  it  prompts  to 
holiness  and  benevolence  of  intention  in  all  self-deter- 
mining and  objective  action.  It  is  the  "  holy  spirit,"  in 
that  harmony  with  its  prompting  implies  the  determi- 
nation of  perfect  altruism,  the  perfection  of  the  personal 
universe. 

16.  Thus  the  independent,  altruistic  spirit,  which 
prompts  to  practical  altruism  in  a  perfect  universe,  main- 
tains the  conditions  to  harmony  of  intention,  leading  to 
harmonious  self-determination  in  all  persons  by  disclosing 
the  intention  with  which  their  being  is  posited. 

17.  The  universe  is  a  system  of  conditioning  and  de- 
termining action,  —  action  of  the  Creator  and  dependent 
beings  in  relation  to  each  other,  objectively  conditioning 
each  other,  —  dependent  persons  subjectively  determi- 
ning themselves  upon  these  conditions.  Conditioning 
and  determining  construct  objective  being,  and  hence 
make  up  the  warp  and  woof  of  human  life,  history,  and 
destiny. 

18.  The  interaction  of  the  Creator  with  dependent 
beings,  and  their  interaction  with  him  and  each  other,  is 
"  Being  as  Conditioned." 

19.  Free  self-determining  being,  or  personality,  per- 
sonally external  to  God,  yet  interacting  with  his  action 
in  their  nature  and  environment,  is  a  full  account  of 


io4  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

all  the  facts  of  human  consciousness,  experience,  and 
history. 

20.  The  grand  fact  revealed  to  thought  in  these 
"  Implications  of  Being "  is  the  evolution  of  love. 
The  grand  significance  of  man  is  his  position  as  an 
exponent  and  beneficiary  of  that  evolution. 

With  this  view  of  Being,  we  confidently  proceed  to 
the  "  Second  Part "  of  our  task. 


I&att  ^econO 


IMPLICATIONS  OF   LOVE. 


There  is  a  love  unstained  by  selfishness, 
Th'  outpouring  tide  of  self-abandonment, 
That  loves  to  love ;  and  deems  its  preciousness 
Repaid  in  loving,  though  no  sentiment 
Of  love  returned  reward  its  sacrament ; 
Nor  stays  to  question  what  the  loved  one  will, 
But  hymns  its  overture  with  blessings  immanent ; 
Rapt  and  sublimed  by  love's  exalting  thrill, 
Loves  on,  through  frown  or  smile,  divine,  immortal  still. 

—  Fragment. 


IMPLICATIONS    OF   LOVE. 


CHAPTER   I. 

CREATION. 

The  ideal,  stable  type  of  ever-moving  progress. 

—  Victor  Hugo. 

In  outlining  the  "  Implications  of  Being,"  we  have 
proceeded  from  the  perceived  facts,  being  and  depend- 
ence, to  the  recognition  of  love  as  the  nature  of  that 
perfect  action  which  is  the  independent  ego.  In  this 
perfect  ego  we  have  found  perfect  altruistic  freedom  for 
objective  action.  Hence  we  have  clear  scope  in  which 
to  trace  the  "  Implications  of  Love  "  in  its  evolution. 
Such  evolution  brings  us  to  consider  the  natural  world 
as  a  creation,  and  God  in  the  capacity  of  his  conditioned 
consciousness  as  Creator. 

That  our  thoughts  at  this  point  may  be  entirely  clear 
to  the  reader,  we  use  the  term  "  creation,"  in  order 
that  we  may  not  seem  to  entertain  the  notion  that  the 
Creator  wrought  the  universe  from  supposed  pre-existing 
material.  Nor  do  we  take  upon  us  to  affirm  anything 
of  matter,  substance,  or  reality,  further  than  to  say  it  is 
action  and  what  action  unavoidably  implies.  Without 
possibility  of  doubt  or  gainsaying,  action  is  real.  This 
we  can  and  must  affirm.     Hence  we  affirm  of  substance 


io8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

that  it  is  at  least  action,  —  whether  it  is  the  action  which 
merely  exists,  or  that  which  moves,  is  conscious,  thinks, 
wills,  feels.  And  all  we  affirm  of  matter  is  that  there 
are  points  and  groups  of  points,  greater  or  less,  at  which 
action,  or  force  if  you  please,  is  perceptible  through 
our  senses. 

The  fact  that  we  perceive  persistence  and  a  certain 
regularity  or  fixed  order  in  these  manifestations  of  force 
or  action,  leads  us  to  regard  them  as  being  perma- 
nent. This  permanent  order  of  persistent  action  we 
term  "nature,"  or  the  natural  world.  We  may  suppose, 
or  imagine,  or  even  assume,  many  things  of  the  sub- 
stance, properties,  and  phenomena  of  nature,  but  there 
is  one  thing  which  we  can  and  must  affirm  as  certain,  and 
that  thing  is  action.  The  term  "creation,"  therefore,  can 
certainly  signify  to  our  thought  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  those  divine  activities  which  consist  as  a  system  of 
conditions  upon  which  spontaneous  and  self-determining 
action,  that  is,  objective  being,  may  and  does  arise. 
And  because  these  divine  activities  are  put  forth  with 
reference  to  and  for  the  purpose  of  conditioning  the 
spontaneous  rise  of  self-determining  beings,  they  are 
termed  the  objective  action  of  God. 

These  classes  of  beings,  which  arise  spontaneously 
upon  the  conditions  which  the  Creator  thus  posits  and 
maintains,  constitute  dependent  being.  They  must  be 
thought  as  objective  to  God  in  so  far  as  they  are  with- 
out consciousness  of  God.  If  they  are  consciously  self- 
determining,  as  is  man,  they  are  consciously  other  than 
God.  While  this  self-determining  action  arises  in  a 
nature  which  consists  of  the  Creator's  action,  it  is  not 
conscious  of  that  nature  further  than  it  is  conscious  of 
using  it.     By  its  conscious  use  of  that  nature  it  appro- 


CREATION.  10g 

priates  and  incorporates  it  into  the  self-consciousness  of 
its  own  being.  The  self-determination  of  a  being  who 
is  thus  free  to  use,  select,  modify,  develop,  repress,  or 
pervert  the  elements  of  his  nature  is  what  constitutes 
dependent  personality,  or  a  finite  person. 

A  definite  conception  of  creation  or  the  natural 
world  may  be  stated  thus  :  — 

i.  Creation  is  a  system  of  conditioned  Divine  activi- 
ties which  constitute  conditions  upon  which  dependent 
beings  may  arise  and  may  determine  their  perfection, 
and  so  determine  a  perfect  universe. 

2.  If  the  perfect  universe  is  developed  in  essential 
harmony  with  the  conditions  posited  in  creation  —  not- 
withstanding the  rise  of  errors  and  accidents  —  it  is  a 
natural  universe,  naturally  developed. 

3.  If  essential  disharmony  arise,  modifying  natural 
conditions,  the  world  becomes  thereby  preternatural, 
that  is,  "  aside  from  natural." 

4.  If  thereupon  divine  love  evolve  further  or  other 
conditions  upon  which  the  perfect  universe  may  be 
achieved  —  notwithstanding  the  existence  of  essential 
disharmony  —  this  evolution  is  supernatural. 

5.  The  line  between  the  conditions  posited  in  crea- 
tion and  those  which  may  be  added  for  recovery  from 
essential  disharmony,  is  the  line  which  distinguishes  the 
natural  from  the  supernatural.  Correction  of  errors 
and  irregularities  must  be  thought  attainable  upon  natu- 
ral conditions,  but  self-determined  antagonism  to  love 
and  its  purpose  in  nature,  perverting  natural  conditions 
to  malign  ends,  is  essential  disharmony,  unnatural,  pre- 
ternatural, and  may  require  extra  natural  or  supernatural 
conditions  to  compass  its  correction  or  elimination. 

With  the  above  view  of  the  objective  action  of  God, 


II0  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

we  may  properly  term  the  natural  world  a  creation. 
Whether  or  not  the  method  of  creation  is  that  of  "  evolu- 
tion "  as  held  or  opposed  by  scientists,  does  not  concern 
us  here.  For  whether  the  method  of  God's  objective 
action  may  have  occupied  millions  of  centuries  extended 
through  numberless  stages  of  nebulae,  organism,  and  life, 
building  conditions  upon  which  new  forms  of  life  arise  to 
condition  the  rise  of  still  succeeding  forms,  before  con- 
scious self-determination  breaks  forth  in  a  personal  uni- 
verse ;  or  whether  he  directly  posits  the  conditions  upon 
which  races  of  finite  persons  arise  and  determine  their 
development ;  or  whether  he  created  dependent  persons 
in  a  full-orbed  finite  perfection  which  they  have  degraded, 
cannot  influence  this  question.  In  any  case  these  objec- 
tive activities  are  but  the  goings  forth  of  love's  evolution 
devoted  to  the  realization  of  an  ideal  universe. 

But  to  return  to  the  above  statement  of  our  concep- 
tion of  creation,  its  first  item  is  of  chief  importance  in 
this  chapter  :  — 

"  Creation  is  a  system  of  conditioned  divine  activities 
which  constitute  conditions  upon  which  dependent  per- 
sons may  arise  and  may  determine  their  perfection,  and 
so  determine  a  perfect  universe." 

This  statement  affirms  that  God  conditions,  and  finite 
persons  determine  the  universe.  It  implies  also  that 
the  creation  is  perfect  in  that  it  affords  the  conditions 
upon  which  finite  persons  may  determine  their  own  per- 
fection and  a  perfect  universe.  Hence  the  fact  and 
form  of  the  natural  world  must  be  conditioned  by  the 
nature  of  the  creator  and  the  dependent  freedom  of  the 
creature.     We  will  therefore  consider  — 

I.  Love,  as  the  nature  of  the  conditioning  action  and 
purpose  of  creation. 


CREATION.  IIX 

II.  Dependent  freedom,  as  the  nature  of  the  deter- 
mining factor  of  the  world. 

I.  Under  the  first  of  these  grand  conditions  we  note 
that  creation  is  chosen  action,  a  step  or  movement  in 
the  evolution  of  love.  The  world  is  not  a  pre-existing 
thing,  but  is  the  dependent,  objective  product  of  creative 
will. 

Nor  is  it  a  necessary  step  in  God's  self-determination. 
Such  a  view  cannot  discriminate  his  unconditioned  being, 
but  must  imply  that  the  original  agent,  God,  is  depend- 
ent upon  the  universe  as  a  means  of  his  own  self-con- 
scious perfection.  "  Unconditioned  being  "  is  essential 
to  any  rational  view  of  being,  and  the  only  view  consist- 
ent with  the  unconditioned  being  of  God  and  the  fact 
of  conditioned  finite  being  is  that  the  latter  is  the  chosen 
product  of  God's  objective  effort.  He  is  absolutely 
independent ;  the  universe  is  dependent  upon  him. 
Having  found  too  that  the  nature  of  unconditioned,  in- 
finite or  independent  being  is  love,  we  have  been  able 
to  see  that  such  nature  is  unconditioned  perfection  in 
itself;  and  that  there  is  in  it  infinite  freedom  to  act 
objectively  or  not,  as  he  may  choose,  without  implying 
augmentation,  impairment,  limitation,  or  abrogation  of 
his  infinite  egoistic  consciousness.  Therefore  we  view 
creation  as  simply  the  evidence  that  he  who  is  infinitely 
self-sufficient  chooses,  in  his  perfect  altruistic  freedom, 
to  put  forth  objective  and  eternal  activities  in  establish- 
ing and  maintaining  finite  being. 

This  choice  implies  an  intention.  Contemplated  as 
an  object  of  our  thought,  Creation  is  a  matter  of  choice 
with  the  Creator,  which  implies  an  intention  which 
accounts  for  the  existence  of  the  universe.  The  evo- 
lution  of  love   is   the   method   by   which    the    divine 


II2  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

intention  is  disclosed  and  carried  out.  The  fact  that 
it  is  an  evolution  does  not  preclude  the  fact  that  it  has 
a  motive  for  its  disclosures.  We  distinctly  admit  that 
this  intention  may  comprehend  much  more  than  we 
can  discern.  Yet  even  we  can  recognize  that  in  love 
which  amply  accounts  for  the  creation  of  a  system  of 
dependent  being.  We  are  indeed  compelled  to  recog- 
nize in  love  a  motive  to  such  a  project. 

We  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter  that  infinite  being 
must  be  thought  as  having  the  spirit,  or  prompting 
tendency,  to  realize  all  possible  being  which  may 
subsist  with  itself.  And  since  in  its  realization  of 
independent  egoism  there  is  the  absolute  freedom  and 
prompting  to  altruistic  action  we  must  recognize  the 
altruistic  spirit  of  infinite  love.  We  must  recognize  the 
perfect  freedom,  potency,  and  disposition  of  a  love-per- 
fected egoism  to  realize  eternal  and  limitless  altruism. 

Since  his  nature  is  devotion  to  the  realization  of  ideal 
being  he  must  be  thought  conscious  of  a  conception  of 
a  perfect  conditioned  universe,  an  ideal  from  which  may 
be  explicated  an  indefinitely  extended  relationship,  and 
which  can  be  actualized  only  by  objective  beings. 
Hence  he  must  be  thought  to  possess  an  altruistic 
spirit,  which  seeks  the  realization  of  every  relational, 
conditioned,  perfection,  the  actualization  of  all  forms 
of  truth,  the  determination  of  all  benevolence.  We 
cannot  think  of  infinite  egoistic  love  without  including 
in  the  thought  this  eternal  spirit  of  boundless  altruism ; 
the  spirit  which  seeks  the  realization  of  all  ideals  of 
being,  every  type  of  perfection,  developing  every  line 
of  beneficent  relationship.  It  is  the  spirit  of  objective 
perfection. 

Since,  as  we  have  seen,  the  intending  the  perfect  is 


CREATION.  II3 

holiness,  this  altruistic  spirit  of  love  which  determines 
itself  as  prompting  to  the  realization  of  every  perfection 
must  be  recognized  by  us  as  identical  with  what  the 
Scriptures  term  the  "  Holy  Spirit "  or  "  Spirit  of  holi- 
ness," —  not  the  formal  or  relational  action  of  God, 
creating  finite  beings,  but  the  concrete  sentiment  of 
infinite  love,  ever  realized  in  the  unconditioned  perfec- 
tion of  God,  and  ever  prompting  the  realization  of  all 
conditioned    ideals. 

If  it  is  asked  why  or  how  there  is  in  perfect  being 
this  spirit  which  prompts  to  a  divine  life  of  objective 
perfection,  we  must  answer  we  cannot  tell.  Which  is 
the  same  as  to  say  we  cannot  tell  "  how  being  is 
made,"  or  how  God  is  as  he  is.  Why  or  how  there 
is  in  his  perfect  action  the  spirit,  or  active  tendency,  to 
realize  finite  or  conditioned  ideals,  we  do  not  attempt 
to  answer  further  than  to  say  that  love  is  devotion  to 
the  realization  of  perfect  being  and  is  benevolent; 
and  that  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  perfect  egoism  has, 
not  only  the  capability,  but  the  spirit  of  perfect 
altruism. 

We  might  say  in  a  concrete,  popular  way  that  a  being 
whose  nature  is  love  naturally  desires  objects  to  love,  — 
objects  that  can  know  and  prize  and  reciprocate  his 
love,  —  hence  he  creates  a  world  of  persons.  This 
statement,  correct  enough,  provided  we  understand  by 
the  phrase  "  naturally  desires  "  that  God,  knowing  the 
good,  the  value,  of  love-determined  being,  and  the 
ability  of  his  love  to  successfully  condition  a  universe 
of  such  beings,  naturally,  in  the  spirit  of  benevolence, 
desires  to  bestow  this  good  upon  others  by  creating 
them. 

What  love  is,  in  kind  or  quality,  as  subjective  inten- 
8 


I14  THE  EVOLUTION  OP  LOVE. 

tion,  it  must  be  as  objective  purpose.  The  practical 
goodness  of  love-involved  being  is  the  practical  quality 
of  love-evolved  being ;  and  hence  is  implied  in  love's 
creative  purpose.  Since  the  purpose  thus  implied  in 
love  is  the  practical  realization  of  the  perfect  it  is  the 
implied  purpose  in  the  creation  of  all  being.  The 
purpose  of  creation  is  the  realization  of  a  perfect  uni- 
verse, and  thus,  benevolently,  the  bestowal  of  the  good 
of  being. 

A  being  whose  nature  is  love  cannot  be  thought  as 
giving  existence  to  other  beings  in  an  aimless,  acci- 
dental, or  blind  experimentation.  But  love,  as  altruistic 
spirit,  is  intention  as  to  objective  being;  and  the  evolu- 
tion of  love  is  the  process  which  achieves  the  full  deter- 
mination, or  carrying  out,  of  that  intention.  Hence, 
the  realization  of  the  ideal,  which  is  implied  in  this 
intention  is  the  teleological  end  sought  in  love's  object- 
ive action.  The  Creator,  conscious  of  love's  resource, 
is  conscious  that  the  ideal  universe  which  is  compre- 
hended in  love's  altruistic  intention  can  be  realized  by 
an  evolution  of  love.  The  evolution  of  love  in  creation, 
therefore,  is  not  to  be  thought  as  a  purposeless  demon- 
stration of  force,  but  as  love's  method  of  realizing  its 
objective  ideal.  Hence  the  evolution  of  love  is  teleo- 
logical ;  it  is  projected  with  a  definite  end  in  view. 
That  end  must  be  the  realization  of  a  perfect  universe. 

It  is  in  love  that  we  find  that  creation  must  have  an 
adequate  purpose  which  fully  justifies  the  choice  to 
create  dependent  beings.  Nothing  can  be  created 
which  is  not  implied  in  the  grand  intention  of  love. 
Since  love  only,  because  of  its  infinite  altruistic  free- 
dom, can  afford  the  conditions  to  a  creation,  love  alone 
is  able  to  assure  an  adequate  result  in  creation.     Any 


CREATION. 


JI5 


creation  therefore  which  is  possible  to  thought  must  be 
prompted  and  projected  as  an  objective  determination 
of  love.  All  created  beings  and  all  phenomena  must 
be  thought  as  in  pursuance  of  such  determination.  We 
cannot  evade  the  implication  that  the  motive  of  love's 
evolution  is  not  a  capricious  demonstration  of  force, 
but  the  creation  of  beings  that  they  may  realize  a  great 
purpose.  This  purpose  is  implied  and  conditioned  in 
love.  It  is  the  benevolent  altruism  of  love  choosing 
objective  determination. 

The  highest  good  of  conditioned  being,  as  God 
knows  and  prizes  it,  must  be  included  in  the  purpose 
of  his  giving  being  to  others.  We  affirm  that  the 
"  highest  good  "  is  the  object  of  creation  on  the  ground, 
only,  that  love  is  the  nature  of  God  and  of  his  creative 
action ;  and  that  the  greatest  good  must  be  the  practical 
value  of  perfect  action ;  and  that  all  action  must  be 
a  good  in  proportion  as  that  action  approximates  per- 
fection. More  explicitly :  God's  purpose  in  creation  is 
to  realize  the  finite  or  objective  ideal,  "the  truth." 
He,  as  the  Son,  is  conscious  of  it  in  thought ;  the 
universe  must  determine  it  as  thing.  It  is  the  realiza- 
tion, or  actualization  of  the  ideal  of  finite,  relational, 
being.  This  intended  perfection  in  creation  is  holy,  its 
practical  realization  is  the  highest  finite  good ;  and  this 
is  affirmed  on  the  ground  that  love,  as  action  which 
seeks  the  realization  of  the  ideal  in  being,  is  both  per- 
fectly holy  and  perfectly  benevolent.  Hence  the  pur- 
pose is  the  realization  of  ideal,  or  perfect  finite  being ; 
and  the  benevolent  quality  of  love  implies  that  this 
purpose  is  a  bestowal  of  the  highest  conditioned  good. 
Therefore  the  purpose  in  projecting  finite  being  is  to 
actualize  the  finite  ideal,  achieve  the  highest  objective 


n6  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

exercise  of  love,  the  satisfaction  of  which  is  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  greatest  finite  good. 

What  is  the  chief  good 7  Our  answer  must  be:  the 
practical  satisfaction  of  love  is  the  supreme  good,  or 
self-determining  action  which  realizes  the  highest  quali- 
ties of  being.  But  what  are  the  highest  qualities  of 
being?  Unquestionably,  those  qualities  which  are 
founded  and  perfectly  realized  in  the  unconditioned 
nature  of  God,  and  may  be  realized,  in  kind,  by  con- 
ditioned persons.  This  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  the 
highest  mode  of  life,  perfectly  adjusted  life,  conditioned 
or  unconditioned,  actualizes  the  supreme  good.  And 
since  love  is  the  nature  of  perfect  action,  which  deter- 
mines the  highest  qualities  of  being,  love  is  the  highest 
mode  of  life ;  and  its  self-satisfaction  is  the  supreme 
good.  It  can  be  satisfied  with  nothing,  however  pleas- 
urable, but  the  determination  of  the  highest  qualities  of 
one's  being. 

The  pleasure,  however  great,  which  results  from  de- 
grading action,  or  is  not  incident  to  exaltation  or  excel- 
lence of  being,  is  not  a  good  and  cannot  satisfy  love's 
spirit  of  self-determination.  Thus,  the  kind  of  action 
which  determines  the  perfection  of  its  own  qualities  in 
the  unconditioned  being  or  achieves  it  by  process  in 
conditioned  being  must  be  thought  the  highest  good. 
While  we  may  have  the  utmost  faith  that  love  will  afford 
the  largest  and  most  enduring  pleasure,  as  incident  to 
its  action,  processes,  and  qualities,  we  are  quite  sure  that 
pain  is  often  incident  to  the  best  achievement  of  its 
conditioned  activities.  Hence,  when  we  speak  of  the 
highest  good  of  finite  being,  we  do  not  imply  that  good 
is  to  be  measured  by  the  degree  of  pleasure  which  may 
be  incident  thereto. 


CREA  TION.  j  j  7 

The  good,  then,  is  the  practical  quality  of  perfect 
action  or  being ;  practical  quality  of  God.  Harmony 
with  God  is  a  matter  of  quality,  and  to  be  conscious  of 
harmony  with  the  perfect  being  is,  in  kind  or  quality,  the 
consciousness  of  the  highest  mode  of  dependent  per- 
sonality. This  is  consciousness  of  the  supreme  good, 
in  kind.  Its  degree  is  modified  by  conditions.  It  is 
love's  perfect,  though  conditioned  action. 

A  mother  who  toils  and  watches  that  her  children 
may  have  health  and  comfort,  scarce  takes  a  second 
thought  as  to  whether  they  will  ever  repay  her,  or  be 
able,  indeed,  to  contribute  anything  to  her  comfort.  It 
is  not  the  thought  of  remuneration  which  prompts  her 
toil,  solicitude,  and  undying  interest  for  them  ;  it  is  love. 
Love  is  her  supreme,  motherly  good,  —  all  the  more 
tender  and  precious  if  the  loved  ones  are  helpless  to 
repay  her. 

"  There  is  a  love,  unstained  by  selfishness, 
The  outpouring  tide  of  self-abandonment, 
That  loves  to  love:  and  dee?ns  its  preciotisness 
Repaid  in  loving" 

Good  is  a  quality  of  love,  —  not  a  quantitative  result 
which  is  sought  as  an  object,  or  end,  to  which  love  is  a 
means. 

This  is  the  dividing  line,  or  differentiating  point  be- 
tween Faith  and  Utilitarianism.  Faith  recognizes  that 
the  perfection  of  being  is  the  supreme  good ;  and  from 
this  position  subjects  the  actual  self,  which  the  finite 
person  is,  to  the  ideal  self  which  he  would  become. 
Thus,  in  a  finite  person's  life,  faith  conditions  his  action, 
love,  which  realizes  perfection  of  quality.  Utilitarianism 
seeks  quantitative  satisfaction  for  the  actual  self,  and 
terms  that  the  good.     Faith  seeks  love,  and  accounts  its 


n8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

qualities  and  powers  as  the  supreme  good.  Utilitarian- 
ism, as  a  mode  of  life,  is  systematic  selfishness ;  faith 
conditions  devotion  to  the  perfect  life. 

Men  speak  of  "  acting  on  principle "  and  "  doing 
right  because  it  is  right."  That  is  to  say,  by  doing  right 
they  enact  the  truth  ;  and  the  truth  is  of  the  divine  ideal. 
This  is  devotion  to  the  ideal,  in  the  faith  that  the  infi- 
nite ideal  is  actualized  in  God;  and  is  therefore  the 
supreme  criterion  of  right  quality,  righteousness.  What 
is  termed  policy,  as  opposed  to  principle,  makes  present, 
actual  self  the  criterion  of  good,  and  implies  that  in  the 
degree  the  demands  of  this  self  are  met  is  the  good  at- 
tained. This  ignores  the  authority  of  the  ideal  as  crite- 
rion of  conduct ;  and  ignores  that  the  good  is  found  in 
realizing  an  ideal  life.  Faith  holds  that  love  to  God,  as 
to  the  perfect,  and  love  to  fellow-beings,  with  a  view  to 
their  perfection,  is  the  highest  mode  of  life.  Utilitarian- 
ism makes  the  quantitative  satisfaction  of  one's  actual 
self  the  highest  mode  of  life,  and  gratitude  for  received 
benefits  the  highest  mode  of  finite  love.  With  the 
former,  righteousness  is  the  actualizing  of  truth.  With 
the  latter,  righteousness  is  the  promoting  of  comfort, 
pleasure.  The  God  of  faith  is  an  actual  perfection  to  be 
loved,  communed  with,  and  copied  as  the  absolute  crite- 
rion, exemplar,  and  inspirer  of  personal  perfection.  The 
God  of  Utilitarianism  is  but  a  convenience.  With  the 
one,  quantitative  possession  is  but  a  means  by  which  to 
achieve  quality  of  being.  With  the  other,  quality  of  be- 
ing is  desirable  only  to  accumulate  quantitative  satisfac- 
tion. It  is  the  old  question,  as  between  Abel  and  Cain, 
Stoic  and  Epicurean,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and 
Jewish  greed,  and  as  between  those  who  still  think  that 
the  universe  exists  for  the  perfection  of  finite  being  and 


CREATION.  Iig 

those  who  hold,  on  the  other  hand,  that  its  object  is 
pleasurable  satisfaction. 

Of  course,  the  "  Evolution  of  Love  "  sustains  the 
Faith-view.  Since  love  seeks  to  realize  the  perfect,  it 
follows  that  the  perfection  of  finite  being  is  the  grand 
object  to  be  accomplished.  Hence  the  highest  mode 
of  life,  the  highest  determination  of  character  is  by  de- 
votion to  the  true,  the  perfect,  indifferent  as  to  whether 
greater  good  could  be  otherwise  attained.  u  For  a 
man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things 
which  he  possesseth."  The  qualitative  perfection  of  the 
universe  must  be  attained  before  the  degree  of  good 
possible  to  finite  beings  can  be  intelligently  estimated, 
or  the  attainment  of  it  be  free  from  all  embarrassments. 

Nothing,  it  seems,  can  be  clearer  than  that  living,  not 
possessing,  is  the  true  excellence  ;  and  that  right  living, 
living  in  interaction,  communion,  companionship,  with 
the  perfect  must  be  the  supreme  good.  Nor  can  any 
affirmation  be  more  confidently  made  than  that  Utilita- 
rianism is,  after  all,  nothing  but  readjusted  selfishness. 

The  universe  must  attain  perfection  in  kind  before 
it  can  be  free  from  disadvantage  in  determining  the  de- 
gree of  its  good.  When  perfect  harmony  and  perfect 
security  are  achieved,  then  the  largest  freedom  for  good 
will  begin  to  be  realized. 

These  affirmations  are  made,  of  course,  upon  the 
ground  that  the  good  is  but  a  practical  quality  in  love 
which  is  the  perfect  mode  of  being ;  and  benevolence, 
the  bestowal  of  good,  is  its  incidental  outcome.  It 
cannot  be  thought  that  any  addition  to  his  own 
nature  or  good  is  sought  by  the  infinite  One  in  the  crea- 
tion. The  Independent  cannot  be  thought  to  depend 
in  any  sense  upon  anything ;  especially  not  upon   de- 


I20  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

pendent  or  conditioned  action  or  being.  Hence  we 
affirm  that  the  creation  is  purely  a  bestowal  of  being 
upon  those  created  ;  and  since  love  is  the  nature  of  the 
Creator  and  his  objective  action  is  an  evolution  of  love, 
it  must  follow  that  this  bestowal  of  being  is  purely 
benevolent. 

The  perfect  altruistic  freedom,  the  infinite  unselfish- 
ness, must  find  in  this  purpose  ample  incentive  to 
create  and  sustain  other  beings  to  share  its  good. 
Dependent  being,  which  is  a  positive  good  which  is, 
upon  the  whole,  better  than  non-existence,  is  such 
being  as  love  can  benevolently  authorize.  Since  love  is 
action  which  is  devoted  to  the  realization  of  the  ideal, 
an  ideal  system  of  dependent  being  must  be  thought  a 
worthy  object  of  such  devotement.  If  God  can  conceive 
a  system  of  dependent  being  which  may  not,  upon  the 
whole,  impose  wrong  upon  any  portion  or  person  in  it, 
but  place  it  within  the  power  and  conditions  of  each 
being  therein  to  make  his  existence  a  positive  good, 
benevolence  would  prompt  to  the  creation  of  such  a 
system.  Or  if,  in  his  absolute  knowledge  of  love,  God 
sees  that  it  is  a  kind  of  action  which  can  develop  such 
a  system  of  good,  then  benevolent  reason  appears  why 
love  which  attains  infinite  egoistic  good  should  also  be 
devoted  to  attaining  the  highest  altruistic  good.  It 
seems  impossible  to  see  that  love  would  purpose  other- 
wise. Not  for  his  perfect  good,  but  for  his  glory,  the 
manifestation  of  his  perfection  and  goodness,  he  has 
created  all  things. 

It  comes  then  to  this  :  The  bestowal  of  perfect  finite 
being  and  all  it  may  achieve  is  the  purpose  to  which 
infinite  love  is  the  motive  in  creation.  Here  that  su- 
preme   devotement  to  perfect   being  which  appears  in 


CREATION.  I2I 

God  as  infinite  self-love  sweeps  out  into  the  objective 
process  of  maintaining  the  perfect  conditioned  being  of 
finite  creatures,  and  illustrates  the  infinite  and  insepar- 
able holiness  and  benevolence  of  perfect  egoism.  Love, 
the  perfect  action  which  realizes  the  infinite  in  God, 
seeks  to  achieve  the  perfect  finite.  Inasmuch  as  non- 
existence has  no  possibilities  and  is  worthless,  and  in 
being  only  is  the  possibility  of  good,  the  founder  of 
finite  being  founds  it  for  all  its  possible  good.  Love 
does  this  in  founding  beings  which  may  actualize  an 
ideal  in  their  individual  being,  and  an  ideal  universe  as  a 
whole. 

It  is  because  his  nature  is  love  that  the  independent 
One  is  the  all-supporting  author  of  dependent  being. 
This  is  to  say  that  the  infinite  Person  has,  in  his  perfect 
action,  love,  a  perfect  egoistic  life  and  chooses  also  a 
perfect  altruistic  life.  One  is  the  consciousness  of  un- 
conditioned perfection;  the  other  is  the  objective  or 
altruistic  life  in  which  he  has  the  consciousness  of  con- 
ditioning perfection  in  others.  His  perfect  egoism  has 
the  spirit  and  potency  of  perfect  altruism,  realizes  the 
infinite  unconditioned  being  in  himself,  and  determines 
the  fact  and  form  of  the  dependent  universe.  Perfect 
in  himself,  he  is  perfect  for  all  others. 

When  we  speak  of  perfect  objective  action  or  being, 
it  is  to  be  understood  that  perfect  conditioned  action  or 
being  is  meant.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  we  affirm  crea- 
tion must  be  perfect. 

Love's  creative  action  must  project  the  highest  ideal 
of  conditioned  being,  —  a  perfect  universe.  It  must  be 
the  possibility  to  the  highest  finite  personality,  and  by 
implication,  to  the  highest  conditioned  good.  Devote- 
ment  to  ideal  perfection  is,  in  creation,  devotement  to 


I22  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

ideal  conditioned  perfection.  What  love  is,  in  kind,  in 
infinite  self-determination,  must  be  its  character  in  finite 
determination.  Since  it  is  perfect  action,  it  must  be 
thought  perfect  in  its  objective  activities,  with  no  ex- 
ception, save  as  limited  by  the  conditions  which  are 
implied  in  its  relation  to  its  object.  It  must  be  thought 
to  project  none  other  than  a  perfect  conditioned  uni- 
verse, the  maximum  excellence  of  conditioned  being. 
This  is  to  say  that  love  is  not  only  supreme  devotement 
to  egoistic  perfection,  but,  in  the  creator,  is  supreme 
devotement  to  the  realization  of  altruistic  perfection. 
Without  impairing  or  perverting  itself,  but  in  direct  ac- 
cord with  its  own  ineffaceable  perfectness,  it  creates 
and  sustains  a  ceaseless  universe  of  dependent  being. 
It  abides  in  the  consciousness  of  unconditioned  perfec- 
tion while  determining  its  self-consciousness  of  perfect 
conditioned  being ;  abides  in  the  consciousness  of  abso- 
lute reality  while  consciously  real  in  all  its  objective 
relations ;  abides  in  the  practical  experience  of  infinite 
good,  and  also  bestows  the  highest  finite  good.  Perfect 
action  in  itself,  it  is  perfect  as  it  relates  itself  to  objects. 
God's  objective  action,  then,  must  be  regarded  as  the 
conditioned  goings-forth  of  love  in  relation  to  objects. 

Creative  love  only  conditions  perfection.  Being  the 
nature  of  the  force  which  expresses  itself  in  the  creation 
of  dependent  beings,  it  is  the  content  which  determines 
the  forms  of  creation.  These  forms  and  their  relations 
to  the  creator,  toward  each  other,  and  within  themselves 
are  results  founded  by  love.  Hence,  love's  holiness,  or 
perfectness  of  intention,  must  have  in  it  the  highest 
ideal  of  dependent  being;  and  its  objective  action 
aims  to  realize  that  ideal.  The  creation,  then,  must 
be  the  highest  type  of  conditioned  action,  realizing  the 


CREATION.  I23 

highest  conditioned  good,  as  a  whole.  The  creator  must 
be  able  to  say  of  his  work  :  "  Behold  it  is  very  good." 

Since,  as  seen  in  chapter  three,  Part  First,  "  condi- 
tioning and  determining "  comprehend  the  whole  of 
conditioned  being,  it  is  clear  that  creation  is  a  system 
of  activities  which  only  establishes  conditions  for  the 
rise  and  development  of  finite  beings.  And  since  we 
have  seen  that  creative  action  is  conditioned,  it  is  both 
conditioned  and  conditioning.  It  seeks  to  realize  the 
highest  form  of  finite  being  ;  but  as  such  "  highest  form  " 
must  include  persons  who,  though  dependent,  are  self- 
determining  within  their  conditions,  it  is  plain  that 
creative  action  is  confined  to  establishing  conditions 
simply.  It  establishes  conditions  upon  which  finite 
beings  may  themselves  determine  their  perfection  and 
experience  their  highest  conditioned  good.  And  since 
the  whole  universe  in  its  entire  history  is  interrelated, 
it  must  be  viewed  as  a  whole  which  conditions  each  of 
its  members  ;  and  the  whole  term  of  his  career  and 
scope  of  his  relationship  must  be  considered  when  we 
estimate  the  excellence  or  perfection  of  any  finite  being. 
Hence  it  is  the  highest  type  of  dependent  being,  as  a 
whole,  and  the  perfecting  of  each  being  as  conditioned 
by  the  perfecting  of  the  whole,  which  we  affirm  when 
we  say  that  creation  is  perfect  conditioning  action,  at 
all  times  and  places  affording  to  all  beings  the  best 
conditions  to  their  perfection  which  perfect  objective 
action  can  posit. 

Since  created  beings  must  be  conditioned  beings,  and 
also  conditioning  each  other  and  conditioned  by  each 
other,  lower  orders  constituting  conditions  to  the  higher, 
love's  choice  is  to  create  them  of  such  type  and  upon 
such  conditions  as  will  afford   the  highest  good,  upon 


I24  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

the  whole,  to  each  and  all.  Such  is  the  perfect  crea- 
tion ;  and  love,  seeking  the  perfect,  seeks  the  highest 
conditioned  good  possible  to  each  and  all,  and  at  all 
times.  The  highest  type  of  perfection  for  the  universe, 
as  a  whole  and  forever,  must  condition  the  type  and  the 
good  of  individuals  and  the  universe  at  the  various 
stages  of  their  development.  Hence  the  degree  of  ex- 
cellence, however  great  or  small  at  any  moment,  is  con- 
ditioned by  all  the  influences  which  are  concerned  in 
realizing  the  highest  good  upon  the  whole.  Whatever 
influences  there  may  be  which  hinder,  retard,  or  ac- 
celerate the  actualization  of  the  ideal  universe,  they 
are  parts  of  the  conditions  upon  which  the  perfection 
of  finite  being  is  to  be  realized.  These  conditions 
may  be  more  or  less  influential  at  one  time  than  at 
another,  and  by  so  much  will  influence  the  degree  of 
good  realized  at  such  time.  But  the  fact  remains,  as  an 
implication  of  love,  that  the  degree  of  good  realized  by 
finite  beings  at  any  particular  stage  of  their  being  is  the 
highest  possible  to  them  at  that  stage,  considering  the 
determining  forces  and  the  conditions  which,  as  a  whole, 
can  afford  a  perfect  universe. 

An  evolving  force  which  is  holy  and  good  would 
provide  that  the  beings  who  are  creatures  of  its  evolu- 
tion should  be  conditioned  at  all  times  and  at  all  points 
for  their  greatest  possible  good.  But  "their  greatest 
possible  good  "  means  the  greatest  good  possible  to  all 
and  to  the  entire  term  of  their  existence ;  hence  this 
greatest  sum  of  good  must  condition  the  degree  of 
good  possible  to  each  person  at  any  given  time  or  place. 
All  comes  to  this  :  A  Creator  whose  nature  is  love  will 
secure  the  greatest  good,  upon  the  whole,  to  which  his 
creatures  as  a  whole  may  be  made  receptive. 


CREATION.  125 

Since  the  objective  action  of  God  must  be  thought  as 
always  seeking  to  realize  his  ideal,  the  creator  must  be 
regarded  as  actualizing  an  ideal  world,  so  far  forth  as 
the  world  is  his  action.  This  implies  that  the  creative 
action  is  not  only  perfect  as  conditioned  action,  but  is 
perfect  conditioning  action  also.  This,  however,  does 
not  imply  that  the  universe  is  perfect. 

The  creation  is  perfect,  but  the  universe  is  not.  A 
perfect  universe  must  at  least  be  one  in  which  every 
dependent  being  who  has  any  degree  of  self-determina- 
tion acts  in  harmony  with  the  conditions  of  his  being, 
perfectly  interacts  with  the  creator's  action;  one  in 
which  beings  of  conditioned  freedom  act  in  harmony 
with  the  conditions  assigned  by  the  Creator.  The  ac- 
tion which  founds  them  and  their  natural  conditions 
constitutes  the  creation;  but  their  self-determined 
selves  and  their  assigned  conditions,  as  used  or  abused 
by  them,  constitute  the  universe.  The  Creator's  action 
affords  the  conditions  in  finite  beings  upon  which  their 
intentions  arise,  and  upon  which  their  action  proceeds 
in  all  respects.  If  their  action  is  in  accordance  with  the 
intention  implied  in  those  conditions,  they  may  be  said 
to  articulate,  or  act  in  harmony,  with  the  creative  action ; 
that  is,  in  harmony  with  their  nature.  They  may  choose 
to  articulate  with  that  creative  action,  or  they  may 
neglect  or  abuse  it,  and  so  pervert  it.  The  Creator's 
action  is  "  very  good  ; "  but  if  neglected,  abused,  per- 
verted by  the  action  of  dependent  beings  it  must  fall 
very  far  short  of  being  good.  The  perfection  of  the 
universe  is  in  the  perfect  interaction  or  articulation  of 
the  creature  with  the  Creator;  but  the  perfection  of 
creation  is  in  the  possibility  of  such  interaction. 
The  possibility  of  harmonious  interaction  of  depend- 


I2g  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

ent  with  the  Independent,  then,  must  be  the  perfect 
creation.  Such  perfect  creation  does  not  exclude  the 
possibility  of  disharmony,  nor  does  an  inharmonious 
universe  argue  an  imperfect  creation.  A  creation  that 
is  proof  against  disharmony  is  but  a  machine,  and  can 
never  develop  into  an  ideal  universe.  The  perfection  of 
creation  is  that  it  has  the  possibilities,  affords  the  condi- 
tions of  a  perfect  objective  universe ;  and  it  is  these 
possibilities  that  render  it  liable  to  disharmonies. 

The  possibility  of  the  perfectly  harmonious  interaction 
of  dependent  with  independent  being  is  the  possibility  of 
universal  harmony.  Love's  perfect  action  is  the  basis 
of  implied  harmony  between  the  independent  subject 
and  the  dependent  objects,  who,  as  subjects  or  actors, 
may  harmonize  with  the  Creator  and  with  each  other. 
Thus,  as  divine  love  is  the  basis  of  universal  harmony, 
the  loving  reciprocation  of  divine  love  by  finite  persons 
is  the  harmonizing  action  which  is  to  determine  a  per- 
fect universe.  But  as  dependent  persons  are  free  to 
reciprocate  the  creative  love  or  not,  they  may  deter- 
mine their  action  and  development,  determine  them- 
selves, so  as  to  produce  defect  and  disharmony  within 
the  bosom  of  a  perfect  creation. 

What  types  of  dependent  being  shall  be  created  are 
implied  in  love.  Love's  ideal  is  the  law  which  decides 
what  these  types  may  be.  Thus,  love  implies  that  no 
beings  will  exist  except  such  as  may  actualize  an  ideal 
which  implies  their  highest  good.  Whatever  may  be 
their  type  it  must  realize  good  to  them  in  the  degree  the 
type  is  practically  attained.  The  full  actualization  of 
the  ideal  of  any  type  of  being  must  yield  the  highest 
good  possible  to  such  being.  Actualizing  their  ideal 
according  to  their  type  is  the  method  of  attaining  their 


CREATION.  127 

chief  good.  Whatever  may  be  the  form  of  devotement 
by  which  each  actualizes  his  ideal,  that  is  his  form  or 
mode  of  love.  It  thus  appears  that  love  is  the  perfect 
or  supreme  determining  action  in  all  conscious  beings. 
It  is,  in  all,  the  action  which  realizes  their  ideal. 

Without  such  perfect  action  within  their  conditions 
dependent  beings  do  not  actualize  their  ideal  selves; 
hence  cannot  achieve  their  highest  good,  but  must 
incur  condemnation  from  their  ideal.  The  discrepancy 
between  their  ideal  and  actual  self  is  the  measure  of 
their  condemnation.  Discrepancy  between  the  ideal 
and  actual  self  of  which  persons  are  conscious  is  con- 
sciousness of  failure,  misfortune,  or  guilt,  or  of  all  com- 
bined. The  perfection  of  the  individual,  like  the  per- 
fection of  the  universe,  depends  upon  realizing  the  ideal 
which  love's  creative  action  prescribes  in  his  type.  In 
the  measure  this  perfection  is  approximated  is  the  good 
of  each  achieved. 

It  is  vain  to  speculate  whether  the  creation,  as  we 
perceive  it,  is  a  perfect  creation.  The  limitedness  of 
our  perception  of  it  or  of  the  entire  career  of  even  one 
being  prevents  our  forming  a  judgment  from  the  world- 
point  of  view.  We  hold  all  optimism  and  pessimism 
based  upon  an  attempted  balance-sheet  of  the  world's 
good  and  ill,  as  most  shallow  and  vain  wrangling.  Only 
from  ontological  implication  can  a  judgment  be  ration- 
ally ventured  ;  and  that  judgment  must  rest  upon  the 
nature  of  absolute  reality.  And  since  reality  is  action, 
and  the  nature  of  perfect  action  is  love,  and  the  crea- 
tion is  an  evolution  of  love,  that  creation  must  be  an 
evolution  of  real  beneficence.  It  must  be  upon  the 
whole  benevolent  and  good,  —  perfect  in  the  determi- 
nation of  an  order  or  form  of  dependent  being. 


I28  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

Whether  that  perfect  form  of  dependent  being  must 
be  thought  as  created  full-orbed  or  progressively  devel- 
oped through  a  series  of  stages  will  be  considered  later. 
Let  it  suffice  to  recognize  here  that  a  positing  power 
whose  nature  is  love,  and  therefore  true  and  good,  holy 
and  benevolent,  must  ultimately  achieve  such  perfect 
world,  —  a  world  not  ultimately  true  and  good,  but  al- 
ways true  and  good,  always  of  the  highest  beneficence 
within  the  conditions  imposed  by  the  essential  factors  of 
a  perfect  universe,  namely,  the  love  that  cannot  rest 
short  of  realizing  the  ideal  of  all  finite  being,  and  the 
self-determining  freedom  of  dependent  persons. 

Perfect  altruism  implies  that  every  type  of  being  which 
may  be  founded  in  holiness  and  benevolence  may,  per- 
haps must  arise  at  some  stage  in  the  creative  process ; 
and  that  none  other  can  arise  than  such  as  may  be  made 
participants  in  the  harmonies  of  perfect  finite  benefi- 
cence. If  disharmonies  arise,  disturbing  the  right  relations 
of  created  beings,  it  is  because  some  or  all  of  these  be- 
ings are  able  to  determine  themselves  otherwise  than  as 
purposed  by  love.  Yet  these  disharmonies  are  within  the 
all-conditioning  embrace  of  love's  limitless  altruism,  and 
will  be  rendered  either  self-correcting  or  self-eliminating. 

What  are  termed  physical  disturbances  and  animal 
antagonisms  may  or  may  not  be  real  disharmonies  in 
the  world  order.  Like  the  questions  of  optimism  and 
pessimism  they  are  indeterminable  by  us,  for  lack  of  full 
data.  Inasmuch  as  the  lowest  forms  of  conscious 
being  may  have,  and,  for  aught  we  can  know,  do  have 
an  instinctively  sought  perfection,  in  attaining  which  the 
interest,  the  joy  of  being  is  realized ;  inasmuch  as 
the  lowest  type  of  person  has  his  ideal  to  actualize,  his 
chief  good  to  attain,  his  sacred  to  adore,  his  beautiful  to 


CREATION.  I2g 

enjoy,  this  love-projected  type  of  being  must  be  thought 
intrinsically  good.  All  other  things  are  good  only  as 
related  to  being.  Non-being  is  nothing,  has  neither 
quality  nor  worth.  Evil  or  undesirable  being  is  abused, 
debased  being.  Being  may  have  its  pangs,  its  woes,  but 
conditioned  in  love  they  are  incident  to  attaining  higher 
excellence.  Non-being  is  without  a  pang,  but  it  is  with- 
out a  thrill.  The  self-determining  agent  of  lowest  type 
finds  a  charm  in  his  being  which  makes  him  strong  to 
endure  all  hardship  so  long  as  his  self-determination  is 
not  degrading,  but  upward,  toward  self-perfection.  It 
is  only  when  self-determination  sinks  toward  its  entire 
loss  in  complete  dependence  that  the  charm  of  being 
can  be  lost,  or  existence  cease  to  be  a  good.  Hence, 
we  say  that  in  being  only  are  the  possibilities  of  good ; 
and  all  forms  of  being  must  be  objects  of  interest  with 
that  divine  spirit  which  we  have  termed  "  supreme 
devotement  to  the  determination  of  being ;  "  perfect 
being  in  the  independent,  perfect  conditioned  being  in 
the  dependently  self-determining,  instinctive  being  in 
the  instinctively  determined. 

A  study  of  cosmic  phenomena  may  indeed  develop 
a  probability  that  the  Creator  is  benevolent  and  his 
action  harmonious,  but  it  cannot  decide  these  questions. 
Religious  experience  may  deepen  this  probability  into  a 
profound  conviction,  but  this  amounts  to  nothing  more 
than  to  corroborate  what  has  been  primarily  implied  in 
the  divine  nature.  This  corroboration,  it  is  true,  may 
amount  to  a  spiritual  demonstration,  but  a  demonstration 
wrought  upon  a  previous  acceptance  by  faith  of  the  point 
in  question,  the  benevolence  of  God.  The  more  we 
learn  of  his  cosmic  activities,  and  the  more  accurately  we 
articulate  with  them,   the   more  successful  are    our  in- 

9 


j.,0  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

dustries,  the  more  perfect  our  arts,  the  more  accurate 
our  sciences,  the  sounder  our  finances,  the  more  pro- 
gressive our  civilization,  the  better  our  health,  and  the 
more  symmetrical  and  strong  our  characters.  This  is, 
however,  the  full  height  of  the  cosmic  argument  for  the 
benevolence  of  the  creator.  It  argues  that  if  all 
dependent  persons  were  perfectly  self-adjusted  to  the 
creator's  action,  there  is  the  highest  probability  that 
their  greatest  good  would  be  realized.  But  it  is  only  in 
the  fact  that  love  is  the  nature  of  the  co-ordinating 
action  of  the  universe  that  we  have  independent  assur- 
ance that  the  creation  is  perfect.  The  holiness  of  love 
assures  that  God's  intention  in  his  objective  action  can- 
not fall  below  his  ideal  of  a  universe.  This  implication 
is  as  clear  as  that  the  self-determined  nature  of  God 
cannot  fall  below  infinite  perfection  without  being  condi- 
tioned and  condemned  by  his  infinite  conception,  or  ideal. 
A  perfect  God  implies  a  perfect  creator  ;  neither  can  be 
realized  except  in  the  unconditioned  and  all-conditioning 
perfect  action,  love.  The  moral  authority  of  love's  per- 
fect action  must  condemn  any  form  of  creation  which 
falls  below  the  possible  realization  of  an  ideal  universe. 
The  perfect  action  of  love  implies  a  perfect  conception 
and  a  complete  achievement  of  dependent  perfection. 

The  ideal  universe,  God's  ideal,  his  conception  of 
perfect  finite  being,  must  be  quite  beyond  all  that 
human  imagination  can  picture.  No  attempt  to  describe 
it  can  be  tolerated.  Yet  concerning  it  there  are  certain 
implications  which  reason  must  affirm.  Since  love  is 
devoted  to  realizing  the  perfect,  it  is  a  perfect  universe 
only  which  its  evolution  can  have  in  view.  This  action^ 
though  conditioned,  is  perfect  within  its  conditions. 
God's  action,  which  is  the  going  forth  of  love  only  by 


CREATION.  I3I 

virtue  of  its  devotion  to  the  perfect,  cannot  be  self-con- 
scious love  if  it  seek  less  than  to  realize  the  ideal.  Not 
only  does  love  realize  the  absolute  perfect  in  the 
independent  being,  and  the  relative  ideal  in  the 
"  Eternal  Son,"  the  creator,  but,  having  chosen  to  create 
a  universe,  love  must  be  thought  devoted  to  the 
realization  of  an  ideal  universe. 

Moreover,  an  ideal  universe  when  actually  realized  is  a 
perfect  universe ;  a  perfect  universe  realizes  the  highest 
conditions  of  good ;  and  divine  love  acting  objectively, 
though  within  limited  conditions,  cannot  imply  less  than 
this  highest  conditioned  good. 

However  the  perfect  universe  may  be  or  become,  it 
must,  nevertheless,  be  conditioned  by  the  relations  of 
subject  and  object,  and  dependence.  But  since  love  is 
the  nature  of  that  action  which  creates  and  carries  on  the 
universe,  love  is  the  all-comprehending  condition  which 
assures  a  universe  which  shall  be  a  perfect  realization  of 
ideal  finite  being,  the  object  of  a  perfect  determination 
of  divine  altruism. 

On  this  account  the  ideal  universe  must  condition  the 
creation  and  carrying  on  of  the  actual  universe,  the 
natural  world.  All  that  is  created  and  all  that  is  de- 
veloped on  the  part  of  nature  has  reference  to  the  ideal 
universe,  and  must  be  estimated  according  to  that 
criterion.  Whatever  may  be  the  degree  of  good  or  ill 
actually  experienced  in  the  universe,  the  implication  of 
love  is  that  it  is  the  highest  good  of  which  existing  con- 
ditions will  admit ;  and  existing  conditions  at  any  given 
time  are  imposed  by  their  relation  to  the  actualizing 
of  love's  ideal  universe.  At  each  point  in  the  history  of 
the  universe  the  highest  good  is  realized  which  can  be 
upon  the   conditions  which  ultimately  afford  a  perfect 


I32  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

universe.  Hence,  the  creation  is  perfect  and  good 
because  it  affords  the  natural  conditions  upo?i  which  the 
ideal  universe  ?nay  be  realized. 

All  this  implies  that  the  ideal  universe  which  love 
seeks  in  its  evolution  very  far  transcends  any  that 
power  can  create  outright.  If  creation,  as  evolved  by 
love,  is  not  the  full-orbed,  unalloyed  good  of  perfect 
finite  being,  it  is  owing,  not  to  a  defect,  but  an  excel- 
lence in  creation.  This  excellence  is  that  creation 
affords,  not  a  perfect  mechanism,  but  a  stable  basis  from 
which  divine  love  perpetually  evolves  conditions  upon 
which  finite  persons  may  determine  ever- progressing 
companionship  with  each  other  and  with  the  infinite 
person,  —  love's  ideal   universe. 

The  perfection  of  dependent  personality  cannot  be 
created ;  hence  a  perfect  universe  cannot  be  created. 
Personality  consists  in  self-determination,  dependent 
personality  consists  in  dependent  or  conditioned  self- 
determination.  Hence  dependent  persons  must  deter- 
mine their  own  conditioned  perfection.  To  suppose 
the  creation  of  perfect  dependent  persons  would  be  to 
suppose  a  contradiction,  hence  it  is  impossible  to 
thought ;  persons  determine  their  own  perfection.  This 
they  may  do,  dependent  upon  the  conditions  which 
the  creator  affords.  Perfect  creation  is  simply  the  af- 
fording perfect  conditions  upon  which  dependent  per- 
sons may  determine  their  perfect  being,  and  thereby 
determine  a  perfect  universe. 

II.  Dependent  freedom,  or  dependent  self-deter- 
mination, being  one  of  the  factors  which  determines  the 
universe,  that  factor,  as  well  as  creative  action,  must  be 
recognized  as  essential  to  the  perfecting  of  the  universe. 
These   two   main  factors  comprehend  and  express  all 


CREATION. 

the  conditions  incident  to  the  project  of  a  universe ; 
and  since  love  is  the  nature  of  the  divine  action  which 
affords  the  original  conditions  of  finite  being,  we  are 
assured  that  these  original  conditions  are  afforded  for 
the  purpose  of  achieving  a  universe  of  perfect  persons. 
These  two  factors  co-operating,  the  ideal  universe  will 
be  realized. 

The  perfectness  of  the  natural  world,  created  with 
reference  to  love's  ideal  world,  has  its  chief  exponent 
in  the  free  self-determination  of  finite  persons.  While 
this  is  an  excellence  without  which  there  could  be  no 
objective  universe,  it  may,  of  course,  menace  the  order 
and  harmony  of  the  world,  and  baffle  the  realization  of 
the  ideal  universe.  Inasmuch  as  each  person  is  free 
to  choose  what  his  action  shall  be,  in  all  those  respects 
in  which  he  determines  himself,  it  is  plain  that  the 
perfection  of  the  universe  must  depend  upon  the  will 
of  each  finite  person  as  well  as  upon  the  will  of  the 
creator.  Accepting  the  creator's  action  as  the  co-ordi- 
nating ground  with  and  upon  which  all  his  creatures 
may  harmoniously  interact,  it  remains  for  dependent 
persons  to  determine  the  perfection  of  the  universe  by 
determining  themselves  in  harmony  with  him.  But 
since  dependent  persons  may  or  may  not  harmonize 
with  the  conditions  which  creative  love  posits  as  the 
co-ordinating  ground  of  their  action,  it  is  clear  that  the 
most  which  creation  can  do  toward  achieving  a  perfect 
universe  is  to  establish  the  most  favorable  conditions 
upon  which  the  harmonious  action  of  dependent  per- 
sons may  be  secured.  Hence  love  implies  that  their 
nature  and  natural  environment  are  created  in  the  form 
most  favorable  to  their  perfect  harmonization.  The 
creation  is  perfect,  then,   for  the  reason  that  it  affords 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

adequate  conditions  upon  which  dependent  persons  may 
determine  perfect  dependent  personality. 

But  since  one  person  cannot  determine  the  self-deter- 
mination of  another,  but  can  only  determine  conditions 
upon  which  another  may  or  must  determine  himself,  it 
is  also  true  that  the  conditions  thus  imposed  may  be 
modified  by  the  persons  who  act  upon  them,  using  or 
abusing  them,  or  determining  themselves  otherwise  than 
in  harmony  with  them.  It  is  evident  that  in  condition- 
ing the  finite  perfection  of  dependent  persons  the 
creator  enables  them  to  condition  his  own  action. 
Hence  we  may  affirm  of  the  conditions  to  a  perfect 
universe  that  they  must  be  the  joint  product  of  the 
Creator  and  his  creatures  ;  and  this  is  the  same  as  to  say 
that  the  perfectness  of  creative  action  implies  original 
conditions  which,  though  modified  by  dependent  per- 
sons, may  yet  serve  as  a  basis  upon  which  errors  may 
be  corrected,  and  dependent  persons  may  realize  the 
divine  ideal  of  dependent  personality. 

Since,  then,  the  two  factors  which  determine  the 
universe  are  divine  love,  affording  the  original  condi- 
tions, and  dependent  persons,  determining  themselves 
upon  these  conditions,  —  or  upon  these  conditions  as 
modified  in  and  by  themselves,  —  since  these  factors 
determine  the  universe,  the  perfection  of  it  depends 
upon  the  willing  interaction  of  dependent  persons  with 
the  independent. 

But  the  determining  themselves  in  co-ordination  with 
the  conditions  which  divine  love  posits  in  their  nature 
is  simply  to  reciprocate  that  love  by  devotion  to  God  as 
absolute  perfection.  This  is  their  highest  devotement 
to  the  perfect,  —  pure,    unalloyed  love. 

Self-love,  which  is  devotement  to  self-perfection,    is 


CREATION.  j^c 

not  only  in  harmony  with  this  supreme  love  of  God, 
because  he  is  infinite  perfection,  but  is  anticipated  and 
comprehended  by  it ;  its  highest  realization  results  as 
incident  to  this  supreme  devotement  to  the  absolutely 
perfect.  For  a  dependent  person  to  love  the  infinitely 
perfect  one  supremely,  trusting  that  his  own  best  self 
will  be  attained  incidentally  therewith  is  trusting  that  his 
devotion  to  supreme  perfection  will  determine  self-per- 
fection. The  supreme  action,  love  toward  God,  reacts 
as  the  determination  of  pure  self-love.  Love  of  the  infi- 
nite ideal  which  is  actualized  in  God  comprehends  de- 
votion to  the  ideal  in  one's  self,  and  realizes  the  ideal 
self.  This  voluntary  committing  the  fortunes  of  self-love 
to  his  supreme  love  of  God,  by  a  dependent  person,  is 
the  highest  form  of  faith  ;  next  to  it  is  that  faith  which 
risks  the  interests  of  actual  self  by  seeking  them  only  as 
incident  to  the  realization  of  his  ideal  self. 

Love  toward  fellow  finite  beings,  which  is  devote- 
ment to  their  perfection,  is  likewise  of  a  piece  with  this 
same  supreme  devotion  to  the  perfect. 

Moreover,  supreme  devotion  to  the  perfect,  steadfast 
love  toward  God,  comprehending  and  developing  pure 
self-love  and  universal  mutual  love  is  holy,  because  of 
its  perfect  intention.  It  achieves  also  the  supreme 
good,  because  it  realizes  practical  perfection.  It  is 
perfect  dependent  being,  in  companionship  with  inde- 
pendent being. 

These  affirmations  concerning  the  actual  universe 
which  shall  realize  love's  ideal  warrant  the  affirmation 
that  the  perfect  universe  must  be  (i)  harmonious  as 
unity,  (2)  free  as  caprice,  yet  (3)  secure  as  fate.  These 
three  grand  characteristics  are  all  self-conscious  in  love, 
and  are  to  be  enacted,  determined,  by  finite  persons, 


136 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


perfectly  loving  God  upon  the  conditions  which  creative 
love  affords. 

1.  If  I  were  the  only  person  in  existence  I  would  be 
at  liberty  to  do  as  I  please  ;  but  as  soon  as  another 
person  exists,  the  perfection  of  our  existence  implies 
that  our  action  shall  be  harmoniously  adjusted  toward 
each  other ;  and  if  I  have  established  the  conditions  of 
his  existence  he  is  dependent  upon  me,  and  he  must 
determine  his  harmonization  with  me  by  acting  in  har- 
mony with  these  conditions.  This  assumes,  of  course, 
that  the  conditions  of  his  being  which  I  have  established 
are  essentially  harmonious  in  themselves  and  with  me. 
So  also  when  another  and  another  person  come  to 
exist  upon  the  same  conditions,  the  perfection  of  this 
community  of  beings  is  determined  by  their  choosing  to 
act  in  harmonious  adjustment  to  each  other;  and  such 
action  is  accomplished  by  their  acting  in  harmony  with 
the  common  conditions  which  I  have  established  for 
their  existence.  Hence  it  is  clear  that  perfection  im- 
plies complete  harmony  in  all  the  action  and  inter-action 
of  persons  who  exist  in  relation  to  each  other.  How- 
ever vast  may  be  the  number  of  persons  composing  the 
universe,  the  same  truth  applies  ;  the  perfection  of  the 
universe  necessarily  implies  complete  harmony  in  all 
their  multiplied  relations,  and  each  one  bears  his  part  in 
determining  this  harmony. 

2.  Freedom,  the  largest  self-determining  freedom 
possible  to  dependent  beings,  must  be  affirmed  of  the 
perfect  universe.  Since  personality  consists  in  self- 
determination,  and  perfect  personality  is  perfect  self- 
determination,  or  independent  being,  perfect  dependent 
personality  is  the  greatest  degree  of  self-determining 
freedom  consistent  with  dependence   of  being.      And 


CREATION.  I37 

since  a  perfect  universe  is  one  of  the  highest  interaction 
of  finite  with  infinite  being,  it  follows  that  the  highest 
degree  of  self-determination  possible  to  dependent 
persons  is  requisite  to  a  perfect  universe. 

Bat  the  self-determining  freedom  of  a  conditioned 
person  means  freedom  to  act  upon  his  natural  condi- 
tions ;  he  may  use  or  abuse  these  conditions.  If  he 
abuse  them  he  may  modify  them  and  thus  impair  them 
as  conditions  to  his  interaction  with  the  infinite,  or  with 
his  fellow  dependent  beings,  and  thus  debase  his  con- 
ditions, render  them  more  limiting  to  his  freedom,  and 
thus  narrow  its  scope.  Free  action  may  be  circum- 
scribed in  the  scope  of  its  operation,  but  is  never  modi- 
fied in  the  quality  of  freedom.  Self-determination  is 
free.  If  it  is  not  free  it  is  not  self-determining.  Re- 
striction of  scope  limits  the  extent  to  which  freedom 
may  be  exercised,  but  does  not  impair  its  free  quality 
within  the  scope  where  it  is  exercised.  There  may  be 
action  which  is  free  in  some  respects  but  restricted  in 
others.  In  the  respects  in  which  it  is  free  it  is  com- 
pletely so ;  in  the  respects  in  which  it  is  restricted  it  is 
without  freedom.  Hence  it  follows  that  as  a  person 
may,  by  abuse,  impair  his  natural  conditions,  he  may  in- 
crease his  limitations,  restrict  and  ultimately  crush  his 
freedom.  Thus  it  is  that  the  highest  range  of  freedom 
possible  to  each  dependent  person  must  be  self-deter- 
mined. If  he  were  created  at  that  altitude  of  freedom 
it  must  be  maintained  by  his  self-determination.  If 
creation  places  him  in  a  lower  and  narrower  scope  of 
conditions  which  he  may  gradually  outgrow,  and  thus 
progressively  rise  to  the  highest  and  widest  range  of 
freedom  possible  to  a  dependent  person,  he  must  ac- 
complish it  by  his  own  self-determination. 


i38 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


It  is  clear,  then,  that  a  perfect  universe,  harmonious 
in  the  action  and  interaction  of  Creator  and  creature, 
must  be  determined  finally  by  the  creature.  The  theo- 
logians of  a  past  day  contended  much  over  the  harmo- 
nization of  divine  sovereignty  and  human  free-will.  Had 
they  clearly  considered  that  the  Creator's  objective  action 
is  but  to  maintain  the  conditions  upon  which  dependent 
persons  may  arise  and  determine  a  perfect  universe,  it 
could  not  have  been  difficult  to  find  scope  for  human 
freedom ;  and  since  this  conditioning  action  is  self-chosen 
by  the  Creator,  they  could  just  as  easily  have  seen  divine 
sovereignty,  independence,  exercised  in  imposing  upo7i 
himself  the  obligations  and  conditions  which  human 
freedom  implies. 

3.  Security,  the  assurance  against  disharmony,  not- 
withstanding the  largest  finite  freedom,  must  characterize 
a  perfect  universe.  A  person  who  is  susceptible  to  evil 
temptations  is  not  perfect,  nor  is  a  universe  perfect 
which  is  liable  to  discord  and  defection.  It  does  not 
realize  perfect  conditions  to  companionship  of  finite 
persons  with  each  other  or  with  the  infinite  Being.  Nor 
can  it  realize  his  ideal  to  the  Creator  or  achieve  his 
purpose  in  creation.  Perfect  interaction  of  finite  with 
infinite  cannot  be  thought  as  tainted  with  a  shade  of 
apprehension  or  suspicion  of  ill. 

Here,  indeed,  is  a  dilemma.  The  largest  freedom  of 
dependent  persons  is  requisite  to  the  thought  of  a  per- 
fect universe ;  yet  this  freedom  cannot  but  be  thought 
a  continual  menace  to  its  harmony,  and  a  menace  to 
harmony  is  imperfection.  The  perfect  universe  must  be 
harmonious,  must  be  free,  yet  must  be  secure  against  the 
dangers  of  freedom.  This  security  cannot  be  attained 
by  any  necessitative  measures.     It  must  be  maintained 


CREATION.  I39 

along  with  the  largest  finite  freedom.  But  it  must  con- 
tain an  improbability  of  defection  so  great  as  to  be 
practically  equivalent  to  an  impossibility.  Or,  to  state 
it  positively,  the  probability  of  steadfastness  must  be 
practically  equal  to  certainty. 

Moreover,  such  perfect  knowledge  of  his  relationship 
toward  God  and  his  fellow-beings  as  will  preclude  dis- 
cord by  error,  mistake,  is  implied  in  each  person,  in 
order  that  the  perfect  harmony  of  the  universe  may  not 
be  marred  by  harmful  inadvertence. 

Such  is  the  moral  security  which  is  implied  in  the 
conception  of  a  perfect  universe,  —  a  security  which  is 
not  the  result  of  force  or  fate,  though  it  render  the 
improbability  of  discord  or  defection  practically  equal  to 
fate.  The  fact  that  it  is  a  moral  security  implies  that 
it  is  determined  by  dependent  persons  themselves.  It 
must  be  that  experienced  demonstration  of  faith  of 
which  perfect  love  toward  God  is  conscious,  and  which 
comprehends  the  realization  of  self-love.  After  this  de- 
monstration is  achieved  the  supreme  devotion  to  God  as 
absolute  perfection,  which  had  demonstrated  this  faith, 
abides  in  augmented  intensity  and  power.  Hence  it 
appears  that  the  supreme  love  of  finite  persons  toward 
God  determines  their  eternal  security  in  universal  har- 
mony, —  a  personal  harmony  of  which  they  can  be 
fully  conscious  only  in  the  consciousness  of  the  fullest 
freedom  of  dependent  beings.  This  perfection  of  finite 
persons  in  harmony,  freedom,  and  security  may  be  deter- 
mined by  and  in  themselves  upon  the  original  conditions 
which  creation  affords. 

But  this  perfection  of  the  universe  is  simply  perfec- 
tion in  kind,  not  in  degree ;  in  quality,  not  in  quantity. 
Though  unspeakable  good  as  well  as  unutterable  ill  may 


I40  ?HE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

have  attended  its  development,  yet  the  object  of  crea- 
tion—  namely,  the  highest  possible  conditioned  good  — 
has  not  yet  been  realized.  The  conditions  adequate  to 
achieve  it  have  just  been  established.  The  objective 
scope  for  God's  altruistic  freedom  is  only  now  attained. 
In  his  personal  perfection  God  is  conscious  of  perfect 
altruistic  freedom ;  but  in  a  perfect  universe,  in  kind,  he 
finds  perfect  objective  altruistic  freedom.  The  altruistic 
spirit  is  perfectly  self-conscious  in  the  Creator,  but  it 
does  not  realize  perfect  objective  self-consciousness  until 
conscious  of  the  perfect  harmonization  with  itself  of  the 
dependent  persons  who  are  its  objects.  This  conscious- 
ness of  their  perfect  harmonization  must  include  the 
consciousness  of  their  fullest  freedom  and  self-deter- 
mined security.  The  perfect  universe,  perfect  in  kind, 
is  thus  opened  to  the  practical  altruistic  freedom  of 
divine  love. 

The  qualities  and  powers  which  are  capable  of  endless 
progress  are  implicit  in  the  universe  of  dependent  per- 
sons, now  perfect  in  their  harmony,  freedom,  and  security, 
and  constitute  but  the  unembarrassed  opportunity  for 
that  good  which  it  is  the  purpose  of  love  to  bestow. 
Creation,  whatever  may  have  been  the  method  of  its 
process,  even  though  incalculable  periods  of  the  Crea- 
tor's objective  activity  may  have  preceded  a  period  of 
fire-mist  which  scientists  suppose,  only  evinces  how  deep 
and  wide  this  foundation  is  laid.  This  perfect  universe, 
perfect  in  self-determined  harmony,  freedom,  and  secu- 
rity, is  the  completed  foundation  which  intimates  how 
massive  is  the  superstructure  of  good  which  love  purposes 
to  build  thereupon. 

"  The  good  of  being "  has  a  composite  meaning. 
What  it  comprehends  we  cannot  tell.     We  only  use  the 


CREA  TION. 


141 


term  "good  "  to  express  what  is  of  real  interest,  benefit, 
value,  satisfaction.  It  is  the  being  or  possessing  that 
which  gives  value  to  one's  self.  Hence  it  may  be  in- 
creased or  diminished  in  finite  beings.  Of  the  abso- 
lutely perfect  Being  we  say  he  is  the  infinite  good  ;  and 
the  communion  or  harmony  of  finite  beings  with  him 
yields  to  them  their  supreme  good.  It  does  this  be- 
cause it  exalts  them  to  their  highest  realization  of  them- 
selves and  their  highest  appreciation  of  all  others,  and 
hence  gives  to  their  existence  its  greatest  value.  Hence 
it  is  true  that  "love  is  its  own  reward,"  the  supreme 
good.  But  since  love  is  perfect  action,  the  infinite  re- 
source, its  evolution  implies  limitless  development  of 
good.  To  finite  beings  who  are  secure  in  their  amplest 
freedom  and  harmony,  there  opens  up  an  endless  pro- 
gress in  the  experience  of  good. 

Harmony,  freedom,  and  security  are  thus  the  imme- 
diate conditions  to  the  highest  conditioned  good.  Upon 
the  natural  conditions  which  the  Creator's  action  posits, 
dependent  persons  determine  these  as  characteristics  of 
a  perfect  universe.  These  self-determined  character- 
istics of  a  universe  thus  perfected  in  kind  become  con- 
ditions upon  which  the  universe  is  elaborated  in  degree. 
The  perfection  of  creation,  or  nature,  is  in  the  affording 
the  primary  conditions  upon  which  these  characteristics 
can  be  determined  by  finite  persons.  The  perfection 
of  the  universe  consists  in  the  adequacy  of  these  self- 
determined  characteristics  to  condition  the  unalloyed 
and  largest  good  of  dependent  being. 

That  they  are  adequate  conditions  readily  appears. 
Harmony  implies  the  perfect  interaction  of  dependent 
persons  with  their  own  natures,  and  perfect  harmony  of 
action  with   each    other   and  with   their   environment. 


I42  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

Since  love  is  the  nature  of  the  Creator's  action,  loving 
reciprocation  of  that  action  by  dependent  persons,  in 
common,  renders  their  relations  to  God  and  each  other 
entirely  holy  and  beneficent.  With  love  as  the  all-con- 
ditioning and  co-ordinating  action,  dependent  persons 
interact  and  thus  harmonize  each  with  all.  Perfectly 
harmonious  interaction  of  dependent  with  independent 
must  be  able  to  realize  the  highest  and  most  real  good 
of  which  a  dependent  universe  can  be  thought  capable. 
Harmonious  personal  adjustment,  carried  forward  with- 
out interruption,  either  by  error  or  wilful  disharmony,  is 
the  only  thinkable  basis  upon  which  dependent  persons 
can  realize  their  highest  good  as  individuals  and  univer- 
sally. The  creative  nature  being  the  common  condi- 
tioning ground,  their  perfect  adjustment  to  it  must  assure 
that  good  which  is  its  grand  creative  purpose. 

Moreover,  this  harmony  secures  the  right  of  self-love, 
individual  devotion  to  ideal  selfhood  in  all.  Pure  self- 
love  implies  the  perfection  of  each  for  the  perfection  of 
all.  Love,  devotion  to  realizing  the  ideal,  enacting  the 
perfect,  being  the  law  of  universal  adjustment,  carries 
with  it  that  devotion  to  the  ideal  self  which  is  self-love. 
Hence,  love,  dominating  all  personal  interaction,  implies 
the  harmonization  of  all  individual  self-love.  Love,  as 
self-love,  is  able  to  attain  its  highest  good,  not  only 
because  it  actualizes  its  ideal  self,  but  because  its  ideal 
self  actualized  is  its  best  practical  self.  This  actual- 
ized ideal  or  perfect  self  is  an  egoism  which  affords  the 
largest  altruistic  freedom,  is  capable  of  the  greatest 
objective  unselfishness.  This  is  to  say  that  one's  best 
self  is  his  best,  not  only  for  himself,  but  for  all  others ; 
and  that  self-love,  which  is  devotement  to  one's  best 
self,  is  at  one  with  all  love,  not  only  in  that  it  seeks  to 


CREATION.  I4, 

realize  ideal  being  in  one's  self,  but  in  that  it  is  one 
with  unselfishness  toward  others.  That  perfectly  har- 
monious interaction  of  dependent  and  independent 
being  must  condition  the  highest  good  is  evinced  by 
this  implication  of  love,  namely,  that  the  highest  good 
of  any  dependent  being  is  attained  only  in  harmony 
with  the  highest  good  of  all  being. 

Again,  if  this  universal  harmony  have  in  it  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  largest  freedom  possible  to  dependent 
persons,  and  also  the  consciousness  of  perfect  moral 
security,  the  conditions  to  the  highest  good  must  be 
thought  complete. 

What  purpose  or  purposes,  what  definite  activities 
may  give  form  to  the  highest  good,  it  is  not  ours  to  affirm, 
but  we  may  be  sure  that  love  to  God,  that  the  pursuit 
of  communion  with  and  deeper  knowledge  of  God,  will 
be  the  grand  devotement  of  all  who  would  realize  the 
supreme  good.  No  matter  how  high  or  low  may  be  the 
nature  of  finite  persons,  the  actual  perfection  of  God 
must  always  and  to  all  alike  be  the  infinite  ideal  to 
which  they  may  be  forever  supremely  devoted,  which 
they  may  forever  commune  with  and  be  assimilated  to, 
and  which  will  ever  be  the  supreme  moral  criterion  in 
the  faith,  hope,  and  love  of  the  universe,  —  the  reality 
and  glory  of  all  its  exploitation  and  achievement.  This 
devotement  to  the  infinite  ideal  is  the  love  which,  in 
finite  persons,  includes  devotion  to  an  ideal  self,  realizing 
pure  self-love,  and  is  devotion  to  the  true  in  all  things. 
Devotion  to  the  infinite  ideal  reacts  in  their  characters 
and  expresses  itself  in  their  activities,  and  realizes  the 
supreme  good  of  dependent  persons.  This  companion- 
ship with  the  infinite  affords  the  further  objective  deter- 
mination of  divine  love,  and  is  the  grand  purpose  of 
creation. 


I44  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

A  progressive  universe,  only,  can  achieve  these  three 
grand  characteristics  which  condition  the  highest  good. 
Perhaps  it  may  be  urged  that  perfect  intelligence  should 
preclude  disharmony ;  and  that  God  might  create  de- 
pendent beings  with  such  perfect  intuitions  and  vast 
susceptibilities  and  powers  that  they  could  grasp  at 
once  the  entire  finite  conception  and  full  significance 
of  divine  love,  and  reciprocate  that  love  in  the  full 
measure  of  dependent  being.  Some  such  creation  is 
what  certain  sensational  philosophers,  such  as  Mr.  John 
Stuart  Mill,  argued  is  necessary  to  prove  from  the  world 
that  it  is  the  work  of  a  perfect  Creator.  Persons,  it  is 
supposed,  who  are  created  in  such  perfection  of  powers 
might  avoid  all  error  in  the  exercise  of  their  freedom. 
Created  with  the  highest  finite  ability  to  know  and  do, 
they  could  avoid  all  error,  and  in  the  fullest  detail 
accomplish  the  highest  harmonies  of  being. 

All  this  is  very  fine  for  the  imagination,  but  has 
nothing  for  the  reason.  In  the  first  place,  it  assumes 
an  insight  into  "  how  being  is  made ; "  a  question 
totally  beyond  the  scrutiny  of  human  thought.  It 
assumes  also  that  the  personal  character,  or  what  is 
the  same,  the  qualities  of  personal  action  of  one  person 
can  be  determined  by  another,  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  a  contradiction.  That  a  being  of  perfect  finite  nature 
can  be  created,  we  do  not  deny,  but  personal  character, 
the  quality  of  personal  action,  is  self-determined. 

Although  we  may  not  deny  that  persons  may  be 
created  with  perfect  perceptions  of  their  entire  con- 
dition and  relation,  so  as  to  be  free  from  error,  and 
with  the  largest  freedom  to  act  accordingly,  affording 
the  greatest  natural  facility  to  continue  in  harmony 
with  these  conditions,  yet  it  cannot  be  affirmed  that 


CREATION.  I4e 

these  persons  cannot  or  will  not  selfishly  choose  to 
enjoy  the  pleasures  and  powers  of  their  actual  selves 
rather  than  continue  in  supreme  devotion  to  the  ideal. 
Such  an  affirmation  is  made  upon  the  assumption  that 
perfect  intelligence  which  will  preclude  error  will  also 
preclude  wilful  wrong ;  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing 
as  an  entirely  wilful  wrong.  This  is  not  a  merely  mod- 
ern assertion,  but  it  is  just  as  absurd,  hoary  as  it  is,  as 
any  new-born  fallacy.  A  person  of  perfect  finite  nature 
cannot  choose  to  enjoy  his  actual  powers  rather  than  de- 
vote them  to  loving  and  serving  the  infinite,  forsooth ! 

But  though  this  is  a  groundless  assumption,  the  fact 
must  always  remain  that  even  to  a  person  created  with 
the  highest  conditioned  powers  there  must  be  unex- 
plored, perhaps  ever  inscrutable  mysteries  in  the  abso- 
lute perfect.  Finite  thought  finds  no  parallax  between 
the  humblest  and  mightiest  conditioned  powers  with 
which  to  measure  the  distance  to  the  unconditioned 
One  to  whom  they  turn  in  spiritual  devotement.  The 
question  is,  can  the  one  be  created  more  steadfast  in 
his  devotion  than  the  other?  The  field  for  faith  must 
ever  abide.  Will  the  highest  created  intelligence  make 
that  faith  more  steadfast?  The  greatest  finite  pow- 
ers may  be  proportionately  as  great  a  temptation  to 
their  selfish  use  as  the  lowly  capabilities  of  the  hum- 
blest person.  The  pleasure  and  ambition  incident  to 
the  selfish  enjoyment  of  these  lofty  natures  cannot  be 
thought  less,  in  proportion,  than  those  of  lover  types  of 
being.  Not  less,  but  perhaps  more  probable  is  it  that 
they  would  choose  the  splendid  gratification  of  the 
actual  self  rather  than  devotion  to  the  ideal  infinite. 

Still,  it  may  be  argued  that  in  their  perfect  percep- 
tion of  their  entire  relationship  they  must  be  thought 


I46  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

incapable  of  error  as  to  the  complete  advantage  of  right 
and  the  disastrous  result  of  wrong.  For  them  to  abide 
in  harmony  is  to  enjoy  clearly  perceived  good,  and  to 
avoid  self-evident  ruin.  This  reduces  their  motives  to 
those  of  merely  hope  and  fear ;  and  not  one  such  per- 
son can  be  conscious  of  security  in  devotion  to  the 
right,  were  this  knowledge  of  results  removed.  Their 
security  is  the  security  of  circumstances.  Yet  self- 
determined  superiority  to  circumstances  is  the  exact 
measure  of  perfect  personal  security  ;  and  it  is  essential 
to  complete  consciousness  of  personal  freedom  and  har- 
mony. These  requisites  of  a  perfect  universe  and  essen- 
tial conditions  to  the  highest  conditioned  good  must  be 
self-determined;  and  finite  self-determination  is  progress. 

Self-determination  of  superiority  to  circumstances, 
superiority  to  motives  of  hope  and  fear,  cannot  be 
thought  possible  to  conditioned  beings  except  as  de- 
votion to  right.  Rising  superior  to  experienced  good 
for  the  sake  of  higher  communion  with  infinite  per- 
fection is  the  exercise  of  faith,  —  an  exercise  which 
confirms  the  love  and  gives  higher  determination  to  per- 
sonality. Love  toward  a  perfect  God,  whose  infinite 
perfection  is  believed  in,  and  that  risks  the  interests 
of  self-love  as  incident  thereto,  is  a  self-determination 
above  known  circumstances  and  superior  to  known 
satisfactions.  Upon  this  faith  in  God,  as  the  uncon- 
ditioned perfect,  the  conditioned  person  determines 
the  secure  steadfastness  of  his  love  as  devotion  to 
the  perfect,  conditioned  and  unconditioned. 

But  where  all  that  a  conditioned  mind  can  ever  grasp 
or  commune  with  is  openly  and  at  once  perceived  the 
only  conceivable  scope  for  faith  would  be  for  him  to  break 
away  from  the  pleasurable  spontaneities  of  his  circum- 


CREATION.  I4~ 

stances,  and  for  the  sake  of  determining  a  conscious 
superiority  to  them,  plunge  into  certain  ruin.  Thus  the 
highest  realization  of  conditioned  personality  could  be 
reached  only  through  disaster.  From  this  "  bad  emi- 
nence "  a  devil  thus  self-determined  might  truly  say  — 

"that  strife 
Was  not  inglorious,  though  the  event  was  dire." 

Nor  could  this  supposedly  perfect  universe  of  happy 
utilitarians  ever  parry  his  grim  sarcasm,  "  Doth  Job 
serve   God  for  naught?" 

In  a  word  :  i.  The  creation  of  an  unconditioned 
person  or  universe  is  not  possible  to  thought.  2.  The 
creation  of  a  perfect  conditioned  person  or  universe 
would  be  the  creation  of  perfectly  self-determined  char- 
acter;  which  is  a  contradiction.  3.  The  creation  of  a 
person  or  universe  in  the  highest  conditioned  perfection 
implies  that  they  cannot  determine  themselves  as  any- 
thing other  than  their  nature,  except  worse  ;  implies 
that  the  danger  of  the  abuse  of  their  freedom  is  can- 
celled by  their  perfect  perception  of  good  and  ill  results. 
4.  This,  again,  reduces  the  universe  to  one  in  which 
fear  and  reward  are  the  highest  motives  ;  hence  not  one 
of  love.  In  such  a  universe  love  can  exist  only  as 
following  an  instinct  or  spontaneity,  not  as  supreme, 
self-determined  devotement.  To  thus  choose  to  drift 
spontaneously  with  their  nature  has  no  security  except 
devotion  to  actual  self,   selfishness. 

It  might  protect  against  mere  error  in  judgment  but 
evinces  no  security  against  deliberate  choice  to  abuse 
power  or  privilege.  There  is  nothing  to  indicate  that 
the  choice  to  pass  from  pure  self-love  to  selfishness  is 
not  immanent  and  easy  in  the  highest  as  in  the  lowest 


I48  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

finite  person ;  and  this  is  the  passing  from  harmony  to 
disharmony.  No  matter  how  nearly  infinite  finite  per- 
sons might  be  created,  their  free  choice  to  love  or  refuse 
to  love  God  and  each  other,  to  use  or  abuse  their  powers, 
is  nevertheless  an  essential  condition  upon  which  the 
harmony  of  the  universe  depends.  Nothing  can  protect 
the  Creator's  purpose,  the  highest  bestowal  of  the  good 
of  being,  from  utter  defeat  if  they  so  will. 

Since  there  is  no  ground  upon  which  it  may  be  affirmed 
that  a  self-determining  person  or  universe  created  at  the 
highest  possible  point  in  intelligence  and  power  would 
be  secure  against  disharmony,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
such  cannot  be  thought  the  perfect  creation  ;  cannot 
condition  a  perfect  universe. 

Moreover,  it  must  be  admitted  that  disharmony 
upon  such  conditions  must  be  complete  disaster.  To 
sin  in  the  light  of  the  highest  possible  finite  intelli- 
gence leaves  no  motive  upon  which  the  sinner  could 
be  recovered.  Hence  there  is  nothing  to  prevent 
the  utter  defeat  and  overthrow  of  the  object  of  creation. 
Their  sinning  in  the  midst  of  the  highest  finite  intelli- 
gence and  motivity  exhausts  all  susceptibility  to  incen- 
tives which  might  induce  their  recovery ;  and  must  leave 
them  incapable  of  honest  repentance  or  gracious  restor- 
ation. Absolutely  nothing  remains  by  which  the  utter 
disintegration  of  the  personal  universe  can  be  averted 
save  force  and  fear ;  and  this,  as  we  have  seen,  would 
be  an  utter  failure  of  the  purpose  of  love's  objective 
determination. 

To  destroy  the  erring  or  sinning  one  by  exercise  of 
power  in  any  way  would  make  fear  of  destruction  the 
highest  motive  to  righteousness  among  all  finite  persons  ; 
would   make  personal   safety  the   highest  good.     It  is 


CREATION.  I49 

needless  to  argue  how  impossible  it  is  to  instigate  love  in 
any  high  degree  by  fear,  but  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  a 
universe  in  which  hope  and  fear  are  the  highest  motives 
can  never  realize  an  ideal  universe.  Under  such 
motives  perfect  finite  personality  cannot  be  attained. 
Though  created  in  the  highest  finite  perfection  of  knowl- 
edge and  power  it  would  not  be  a  perfect  universe  the 
moment  its  security  consciously  depends  upon  hope  and 
fear  as  its  highest  motives.  Love  could  not  appear  as 
self-sufficient,  as  able  to  realize  its  objective  ideal  or 
achieve  perfect  beneficence  ;  hence  not  as  the  nature  of 
perfect  being.  Moreover,  the  suspicion  that  selfishness 
may  be  capable  of  greater  power  and  pleasure  than  love, 
that  it  is  the  chief  good,  would  haunt  the  universe  for- 
ever,—  a  suspicion  which  God  would  appear  unable  to 
meet,  and  love  unable  to  settle.  Is  love  the  nature  of  the 
independent,  unconditioned,  perfect  being?  Is  God 
the  best  God  that  might  be?  Is  a  love-determined 
universe  the  best  universe  ?  Is  the  moral  authority  which 
his  love  imposes  a  reality?  Does  it  rightfully  dominate 
conscience?  May  not  both  the  obedient  and  disobe- 
dient despise  him  whom  only  might  "  hath  made 
greater  "  ?  These  are  the  questions  which  dwell  in  the 
bosom  of  that  suspicion,  which,  unanswered,  must  eat 
out  the  moral  fibre   of  the  universe. 

But  a  perfect  creation,  by  love,  must  not  only  condi- 
tion a  perfect  universe,  but  must  imply  in  case  of  dis- 
harmony the  least  possible  suffering  of  calamitous 
results  ;  hence  we   must  affirm    that  — 

The  lowest  point  of  intelligence  and  power  at  which 
moral  action  can  arise  is  that  at  which  dependent  per- 
sonality should  originate.  This,  in  order  (i)  that  their 
disharmonies  may    have  the    minimum   of  ill-result, — 


i5° 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


capable  of  inflicting  the  least  possible  harm  upon  them- 
selves or  each  other;  (2)  that  they  may  have  the 
largest  susceptibility  to  corrective  conditions  and  the 
widest  field  for  remedial  motives. 

At  this  lowest  point  of  intelligence  and  power  their 
errors  and  moral  antagonisms  are  less  potent  to  inflict 
woe  upon  themselves  or  the  world.  Their  experience  of 
the  ills  of  disharmony  will  thus  find  them  in  the  con- 
ditions most  susceptible  to  its  corrective  tendency. 
The  regretful  experience  of  its  pains  and  disadvantages 
becomes  the  opportunity  for  higher  motives,  and  thus 
the  largest  scope  for  moral  recuperation  and  remedial 
measures  is  secured.  But  were  persons  created  at  the 
highest  stage  of  finite  intelligence  and  power,  the  pro- 
bability of  disharmony  would  be  as  great,  if  not  greater. 
If  they  choose  disharmony  their  power,  for  evil,  is  the 
maximum  while  the  highest  incitements  to  harmony  will 
have  been  exhausted.  No  remedy  remains  but  punish- 
ment of  the  offenders,  no  higher  motive  to  the  unoffending 
than  fear,  and  that  in  its  most  selfish  form.  The  highest 
created  heaven  of  such  beings  could  become  at  any 
time  an  irretrievable  hell. 

Since,  then,  a  perfect  universe  is  one  which  cannot  be 
created  perfect  nor  forced  into  perfection,  but  must  be 
self-determined  and  therefore  must  be  progressive,  the 
created  conditions  upon  which  it  is  determined  must  be 
regarded  perfect  in  that  they  afford  the  mmimum  of  ill 
and  the  maxi?num  of  good  which  are  incident  to  the 
process.  The  perfection  of  creation  is  in  its  affording 
conditions  upon  which  a  perfect  universe  can  be  evolved 
from  the  lowest  stage,  in  order  that  every  irreparable  ill 
may  be  avoided,  every  abuse  corrected,  every  wound 
healed,  every  error  eliminated,  and  every  disharmony 


CREATION.  K! 

remedied  by  rising  to  higher  harmonies.  All  this  is 
implied  in  love,  ever  evolving  its  conditioning  activities 
along   the  lines  of  holiness  and  benevolence. 

The  divine  benevolence  can  find  complete  deter- 
mination only  in  a  progressive  creation  which  founds 
dependent  personality  at  the  lowest  degree  of  intelli- 
gence and  power  at  which  personality  can  arise.  Although 
the  errors  of  dependent  persons  in  such  a  deep  vale  of 
ignorance  and  weakness  may  be  many  and  great,  those 
errors  are  schools  of  instruction  in  the  experience 
of  the  bad  tendency  of  wrong  and  the  excellence  of 
right.  This,  too,  with  little  or  no  guilt  on  the  part  of 
the  erring. 

Moreover,  their  experience  thus  gained  is  the  greatest 
possible  in  proportion  to  their  intelligence  in  other 
respects.  Thus  their  innocently  gained  knowledge  of 
the  merit  of  right  and  the  demerit  of  wrong  is  the  great- 
est possible  to  their  stage  of  development ;  and  by  so 
much  are  they  proportionately  better  armed  against  the 
liability  to  intentional  wrong  than  if  created  in  the 
full-orbed  powers  of  finite  being. 

Further,  in  the  event  of  their  committing  intentional 
wrong  they  experience  in  this  lowly  state  a  correspond- 
ingly low  degree  of  guilt.  The  turpitude  of  their  sin  is 
the  minimum  of  moral  evil  which  may  result  from 
wrong  intention ;  and  the  depraving  influence  which 
such  guilt  may  impose  upon  the  general  character  is 
the  least  possible. 

Added  to  these  considerations,  it  is  evident  the 
power  to  harm  each  other  must  be  of  the  lowest  practi- 
cable degree.  It  must  have  the  least  subtlety  to  beguile, 
the  least  skill  to  injure,  the  least  efficiency  to  dominate 
the    actions  and  interests  of  others.     It  may,  indeed, 


1c2  THE   EVOLUTION  OF   LOVE. 

have  more  of  the  crude  violence  of  the  brute,  but  must 
have  far  less  of  the  malignant  finesse  of  the  fiend. 

The  susceptibility  to  recovery  by  renouncing  wrong 
as  such,  and  the  devotement  to  right  under  these 
circumstances  is  the  greatest  possible.  Such  recovery 
comes  to  the  erring  or  sinning  when  they  have  sustained 
relatively  the  slightest  degree  of  damage  to  their 
natures,  and  when  there  is  before  them,  relatively,  the 
largest  term  of  discipline  and  development  in  which  to 
become  confirmed  in  devotion  to  right,  to  undo  the 
damage  of  past  wrong  and  develop  the  greatest  degree 
of  adaptation  and  habit  in  righteous  being.  True,  the 
process  is  beset  with  great  ignorance  and  attended  by 
many  failures  and  lapses,  but  the  will  is  sovereign  and 
efficient  in  the  moral  intentions  of  the  most  ignorant  as 
well  as  in  those  of  the  most  enlightened  of  finite 
persons.  The  mistake,  the  lapse,  the  fall,  occurring 
within  the  arms  of  that  benevolence  which  provides  that 
it  shall  take  place  in  the  simpler  and  least  harmful  con- 
ditions, encourages  to  righteous  endeavor  and  affords 
corrective  wisdom. 

Ignorance  and  weakness,  from  the  above  considerations 
stand  out  as  important  conditions  which  love  imposes  as 
essential  to  the  determination  of  perfect  finite  person- 
ality. By  means  of  error  the  moral  discipline  gained  is 
immeasurably  greater,  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of 
intelligence  and  power,  in  a  person  who  has  been 
progressively  developed  to  a  high  stage  of  capability 
than  it  can  possibly  be  in  one  who  is  created  at  once  at 
the  same  altitude  of  natural  powers.  Though  he  be 
weak  and  ignorant  as  a  peasant,  he  may  love  with  the 
sincerity  of  a  seraph.  This  preponderance  of  the  moral 
over  the  natural  personality  facilitates  the  spiritual  de- 


CREA  TION. 


*53 


termination  of  the  person  vastly  in  advance  of  his 
formulated  knowledge  ;  and  by  so  much  is  his  arrival  at 
the  point  of  moral  security  in  advance  of  the  attainment 
of  his  largest  scope  for  freedom ;  and  by  so  much  less 
is  the  harmony  of  the  world  menaced  by  personal 
freedom.  Acids,  razors,  and  engines,  in  the  hands  ot 
infants  are  weapons  of  destruction,  but  in  the  hands  ot 
the  skilled  and  strong  are  instruments  of  utility.  So, 
also,  great  intelligence  and  power,  in  the  hands  ol 
infantile  moral  development,  would  be  weapons  of 
destruction,  but  in  the  hands  of  securely  self-determined 
love  are  instruments  of  good.  Hence,  the  greatest 
preponderance  of  devotion  to  the  good  over  capability 
for  evil  is  gained  by  a  person  or  universe  created  in  the 
lowest  conditions  possible   to  moral  development. 

Moreover,  the  corrective  discipline  of  error  by  its 
pains  and  inconveniences  which  result  from  collision 
with  all-conditioning  love,  must  tend  to  dissuade  from 
intentional  wrong-doing,  deter  the  rise  of  sin.  And 
should  intentional  sin  arise,  its  self-defeat  is  facilitated 
by  its  blundering  incoherence  when  ignorantly  or  feebly 
perpetrated. 

Thus  ignorance  and  error  have  a  mission  in  the 
natural  world,  affording  the  conditions  to  the  earliest 
realization  of  the  harmony,  highest  freedom,  and  security 
which  must  characterize  the  perfect  universe.  Not  only 
is  it  true  that  "  to  err  is  human,"  but  to  err  is  natural. 
"  For  the  creation  was  subjected  to  vanity,  not  of  its 
own  will,  but  by  reason  of  him  who  subjected  it,  in  hope 
that  the  creation  itself  also  shall  be  delivered  from  the 
bondage  of  corruption  into  the  liberty  of  the  glory  of 
the  children  of  God." 

This  is  the  true  "  bitter-sweet "  doctrine.      It  differs 


i54 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


from  the  doctrine,  so-called,  which  includes  sin,  inten- 
tional wrong,  as  natural.  Sin  is  thus  made  a  necessity 
to  the  universe,  and  God  is  under  obligations  to  it  for 
the  realization  of  his  purposes.  This  we  repudiate 
wholly  as  having  no  foundation  or  natural  place  in  the 
evolution  of  love.  Sin  is  unnatural,  and  must  be  dis- 
posed of  as  such.  But  error  is  naturally  incident  to  the 
dependent  objects  of  love's  evolution,  which  conditions 
the  rise  of  moral  consciousness  at  the  lowest  possible 
stage  of  personal  intelligence  and  power.  This  is  the 
only  sense  in  which  there  is  a  divinely  authorized  "  min- 
istry "  of  ignorance,  weakness,  and  pain  ;  and  this  is  the 
sense  in  which  ignorance,  and  feebleness  of  mind  and 
body,  and  an  environment  of  hardship  are  imposed  by 
creative  perfection,  as  conditions  to  the  development  of 
perfect  finite  personality. 

The  greatest  of  innocent  errors  is  the  hope  of  finding 
a  permanent  finite  ideal ;  the  pursuing  a  finite  ideal,  ex- 
pecting it  to  be  a  satisfying  perfect  in  kind  and  degree 
when  once  realized.  Whether  it  be  a  babe,  weary  of  its 
rattle-box  but  supremely  devoted  to  a  newly  possessed 
hobby-horse,  or  a  millionnaire  devoted  to  the  acquisition 
of  additional  millions,  the  story  is  the  same.  The  con- 
quest of  the  world,  realized,  is  not  the  ideal  for  which 
the  conqueror  weeps.  "  We  gather  shells  from  youth 
to  age  ;  and  then  we  leave  them,  like  a  child."  The 
worn-out  pleasure  seeker  is  puzzled  to  understand  how 
it  was  that  he  could  ever  have  pursued  with  such  intense 
ardor  the  objects  for  which  now  he  has  only  satiety 
and  loathing.  The  secret  is  simply  this  in  every  case  : 
his  love  sought  satisfaction  in  only  finite  ideals. 

But  even  this  greatest  of  errors  has  its  mission.  The 
cloying  sweets,  the  weariness   of  toys,  the  disappoint- 


CREA  TION. 


155 


ment  of  wealth,  pain,  and  pleasure,  teach  that  "  One  is 
good,  that  is  God."  There  is  One  perfect,  —  the  actual- 
ized, infinite  ideal.  This  alone  can  afford  the  absolute 
authority  of  the  ideal,  and  hold  by  its  infinite  charm  and 
motives  a  steadfastly  progressive,  eternal  devotement  of 
a  free  universe.  "  Love  is  its  own  reward,"  and  to  in- 
teract in  progressive  companionship  by  supreme  devo- 
tion to  the  unconditioned  perfect,  can  alone  be  to  finite 
persons  their  supreme  good. 

To  attain  to  freely  self-determined  security  in  con- 
scious harmony  with  him  is  to  achieve,  incidentally,  an 
ideal  selfhood,  which  is  the  goal  of  a  pure  self-love.  But 
we  can  affirm  it  is  an  actualized  ideal  self  in  kind  only. 
It  realizes  unwavering  security  in  the  largest  scope  of 
finite  freedom  ;  but  is  just  now  wholly  fitted  to  achieve 
the  unqualified  good  of  progressive  companionship  with 
God. 

Naturally  irretrievable  wrong  can  only  be  in  the  case 
of  those  persons  who  cling  to  error,  though  conscious  of 
its  erroneous  nature.  To  correct  the  supreme  wrong  of 
supreme  devotion  to  finite  objects,  when  its  erroneous- 
ness  is  disclosed,  is  to  restrict  it  to  the  category  of  inno- 
cent error,  which  does  no  violence  to  the  person's  essen- 
tial adjustment  to  the  Creator's  purpose.  But  to  indulge 
the  practice  of  wrong  for  the  enjoyment  of  its  temporary 
interest  is  to  do  intentional  wrong,  is  to  break  with  the 
natural  harmony,  and  pervert  all  his  natural  conditions 
by  self-determined  devotion  to  his  actual  self.  This  is 
selfishness,  the  antagonist  of  love.  A  machine  in  which 
all  the  centres  of  motion  are  in  true  adjustment  is  essen- 
tially harmonious,  and  will  eventually  wear  down  and 
smooth  off  the  rough  and  uneven  surfaces  and  edges  of 
cogs  and  pulleys,  and  finally  wear  to  perfect  and  perma- 


i56 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


nent  harmony.  So,  also,  supreme  love  to  God  and 
mutual  love  among  themselves  is  the  true  adjustment  of 
dependent  persons  which  constitutes  the  essential  har- 
mony of  the  world.  If  this  harmony  is  maintained,  the 
errors  and  misfortunes  incident  to  a  weak  and  ignorant 
world  are  superficial  inequalities  and  rough  edges  of 
conditioned  life  which  will  be  eventually  worn  away,  and 
their  ill  results  neutralized  by  the  harmonious  tendency 
of  love's  adjustments.  Thus  the  creation  perfectly  con- 
ditions dependent  persons  in  essential  harmony,  which, 
if  maintained,  will  constantly  develop  more  intimate 
and  elaborate  harmony  with  God's  perfect  action,  and 
ultimately  realize  security  in  the  perfection  of  universal 
personal  adjustment  of  finite  with  infinite  being. 

The  chief  difference  between  the  machine  and  the 
universe  is  that  adjustment  in  one  is  maintained  by  its 
maker,  while  in  the  personal  universe  the  essential  ad- 
justment is  only  conditioned  by  the  Creator,  but  is  de- 
termined for  himself  by  each  dependent  person.  Because 
of  this  self-determination  in  each  person  the  superficial 
inequalities  and  errors  resulting  from  ignorance  and 
weakness  are  not  the  only  disturbances  to  which  the 
world  is  liable. 

The  Preternatural.  —  We  use  the  term  simply  in  the 
sense  of  "  aside  from  natural,"  or  perverted  nature. 
The  power  of  finite  persons  to  change  their  adjustment 
toward  God  and  toward  their  fellow-men,  and  abuse  and 
pervert  their  own  natures  and  natural  relations,  enables 
them  to  render  the  entire  scheme  of  their  conditions 
unnatural.  Fire  affords  conditions  to  comfort,  health, 
manufacture,  commerce,  and  wealth,  but  if  abused  affords 
the  most  horrible  conditions  of  disaster  and  torture.  So 
the  Creator's  love  affords  the  conditions  to  the  deter- 


CREA  TION. 


157 


mination  of  the  greatest  good,  but  if  abused,  perverted 
by  maladjustment,  these  conditions  may  be  made  vast, 
organized  forces  for  evil.  But  the  change  is  not  in 
divine  love,  the  action  which  posits  natural  conditions. 
Natural  conditions  are  modified  by  the  false  self-adjust- 
ment of  dependent  persons.  Hence,  if  restoration  to 
the  natural  is  ever  achieved  by  such  persons,  it  must  be 
by  their  changing  their  attitude  to  one  of  true  harmony 
with  the  creation. 

By  self-perversion  dependent  persons  may  organize 
illusions  which  obscure  their  consciousness  of  the  cardi- 
nal facts  contained  in  their  conditions,  although  disaster 
and  defeat  frequently  recall  them  to  a  sense  of  these 
facts.  They  may  curse  nature  and  fight  natural  law,  but 
natural  forces  will  keep  right  on,  maintaining  the  fact  of 
the  Creator's  independence.  Neither  can  they  always 
avert  their  attention  from  the  fact,  conscience,  the  au- 
thority of  the  perfect  which  morally  conditions  their 
intentions,  until,  "  in  their  thoughts,  they  accuse  each 
other  "  according  to  this  criterion.  But  because  of  their 
self-determining  freedom  it  must  be  thought  possible  for 
them  to  so  pervert  and  debase  their  personality  as  to 
become  unsusceptible  to  the  beneficent  motivity  of  love 
as  expressed  in  the  natural  world. 

So  elaborately  organized,  complex,  and  fascinating 
may  selfish  forms  of  pleasure,  culture,  and  enterprise 
become  as  to  mislead  or  beguile  sincere  minds  for  in- 
definite periods  of  time.  The  wilful  wrong  of  one  age 
may  become  the  conventional  habit  of  succeeding  ages, 
and  the  selfish  excesses  of  one  generation  mould  the 
natural  instincts  or  establish  the  tastes  of  their  descend- 
ants. The  universal  prevalence  of  selfish  desire  and 
practice  may  establish  a  general  devotion  to  actual  self, 


^8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

which,  in  its  most  alleviating  forms  of  utilitarianism,  may 
hopelessly  displace  all  faith  in  the  ideal,  and  discard  all 
devotion  to  abstract  truth  as  visionary  and  fanatical. 
Utilitarianism  in  every  form  may,  within  the  benevolent 
forbearance  of  love's  natural  conditions,  systematize  alle- 
viations to  this  riot  of  selfishness.  It  may  boast  of  this  as 
chief  good,  forgetting  or  ignoring  that  all  its  benignities 
are  owing  to  the  benevolence  of  the  Creator,  and  its 
garnished  thrift  of  readjusted  selfishness  is  only  tolerable 
because  it  is  permitted  to  nestle  in  the  bosom  of  love's 
forbearance.  Thus  dependent  persons  may  condition 
themselves  by  modifying  their  natural  susceptibilities 
and  external  conditions,  totally  obscuring  all  incitement 
or  motivity  to  loving  devotion  to  the  perfect. 

If  this  obscuration  of  susceptibility  and  incitement  to 
the  ideal  fail  to  become  total,  it  must  be  because  the 
rational  demand  for  the  Independent,  —  the  actual  ex- 
perience of  dependence  and  the  authority  of  the  perfect 
in  conscience,  —  assert  themselves  more  or  less  in  the 
midst  of  all  finite  perversion  and  sham.  Their  essential 
dependence  upon  the  Independent,  demonstrated  ever 
and  anon  in  the  self-defeat  of  selfishness,  ever  reminds 
dependent  persons  of  the  self-sustained  independence  of 
natural  forces.  Likewise  the  persistent  authority  of  the 
holy,  the  perfect,  can  never  be  bribed  to  approve  wrong 
intention  in  the  personal  conscience.  But  in  personal 
self-determination  there  may  be  the  entire  perversion  of 
all  perception  of  the  real  good,  and  total  obliteration  of 
its  motivity  to  incite  love  toward  the  Creator.  Moreover, 
the  prosperity  of  selfishness  must  tend  to  establish  a 
sincere  conviction  that  the  Independent  is  indifferent  to 
good  or  evil,  and  that  perfection  is  but  a  chimera,  while 
the  bitterness  of  conditions,  as  perverted  by  selfishness, 


CREATION.  !^9 

tends  to  obscure  the  benevolence  of  the  Creator  and 
even  suggest  a  questioning  of  his  existence. 

Human  history  illustrates  these  implications  of  pos- 
sible distortion  and  defeat  of  natural  conditions  by  self- 
determined  devotion  to  actual  self,  or  selfishness.  When 
devotement  to  actual  self  is  thus  determined  upon,  all 
the  natural  methods  of  divine  love's  interpretation  are 
refracted  like  light  when  passing  through  a  dense 
medium.  Not  only  the  secret  feelings  of  individuals, 
but  often  the  philosophies,  enterprises,  and  collective 
sentiment  of  mankind  evince  their  perversion.  Their 
desire  for  God  is  only  a  desire  for  an  almighty  con- 
venience, and  when  this  convenience  is  not  apparent 
their  faith  in  the  benevolence,  or  even  existence,  of  God 
is  shaken. 

Selfishness  demands  that  divine  action  shall  give  up 
its  ideal,  and  devote  its  energies  to  mere  alms-giving  to 
man  as  he  actually  is,  —  claims  that  to  bless  himself  as 
he  actually  is  is  man's  first  right,  and  to  extort  benefits 
from  his  fellow-men  is  a  proper  use  of  his  intelligence 
and  power.  This  is  human  welfare  as  viewed  by  the 
philosophies  of  selfishness.  Hence  they  complain  that 
human  life  is  "  the  worst  possible  "  because  of  the  dis- 
comforts experienced  by  actual  self.  The  perfection  of 
self,  toward  which  love  conditions  all  human  striving, 
and  to  achieve  which  any  sacrifice  it  demands  of  actual 
self  is  small,  is  ignored.  Since  the  evolution  of  divine 
love  conditions  all  persons  with  reference  to  their  sub- 
jecting the  actual  to  the  ideal,  the  friction  and  hardship 
which  come  to  man  by  his  misappropriating  his  condi- 
tions are  beyond  computation.  The  spleen  of  a  Cain  is 
nothing  but  devotion  to  the  actual  self  which  will  recog- 
nize God  only  as  a  servitor  to  selfishness.     Idolatry  is 


!6o  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

but  the  apotheosis  of  actual,  imperfect  self.  Its  gods  are 
merely  large  men  as  men  actually  are,  not  as  they  might 
and  ought  to  become  by  devotement  to  that  ideal  man- 
hood which  is  authorized  by  the  actual  perfection  of  the 
unconditioned  Person,  God. 

Pessimists  think  this  the  worst  possible  world  because 
the  satisfaction  of  their  present  actual  self  is  their  crite- 
rion of  good ;  and  because  our  natural  conditions  are 
not  favorable  to  selfish  satisfaction.  The  atheist  insists 
that  if  the  world  were  the  creation  of  a  perfect  being, 
it  and  our  race  would  have  been  created  in  the  highest 
finite  perfection ;  and  hence  would  be  perfectly  happy. 
In  his  view  actual  being  of  any  type  is  the  criterion  of 
what  is,  or  ought  to  be,  good.  All  these  views  are 
from  the  standpoint  of  selfishness,  which  only  wishes  to 
place  the  actual,  imperfect  self  in  a  position  where  it 
may  be  wholly  a  recipient,  and  but  selfishly  a  factor,  of 
beneficence.  In  a  word,  they  ignore  the  need  of  a 
progressive  actualization  of  the  ideal  in  order  that  per- 
sonal perfection  may  be  actually  attained  and  forever 
secured.  They  fail  to  recognize  that  neither  power, 
knowledge,  nor  pleasure,  but  love,  is  the  nature  of  per- 
fect action,  and  alone  can  yield  a  perfect  universe. 

Because  love  is  love  and  is  capable  of  mercy  it  has 
conditioned  the  continuance  of  our  selfish  race.  Nay, 
more,  these  conditions  of  mercy  in  which  sin  is  per- 
mitted to  make  a  full  demonstration  of  itself,  —  con- 
ditions which  can  correct,  discipline,  and  recover  the 
sinner,  —  these  conditions  afford  at  least  temporary 
prosperity  to  sin  and  success  to  selfishness.  Nothing  in 
our  world,  it  is  true,  seems  more  successful  than  selfish- 
ness, nothing  more  jubilant  and  arrogant  than  the 
triumphs  of  selfish  devotement.     On  this  account  the 


CREATION.  !6i 

benevolence  of  divine  love  becomes  the  privilege  of 
sin.  Benevolence  is  made,  by  man,  to  abet  selfishness. 
Love  becomes  the  servant  of  its  enemy,  and  its  activi- 
ties are  used  as  the  instruments  of  his  crimes.  Not 
only  does  it  afford  scope  for  sin's  continuance,  but  en- 
courages it.  That  "  the  goodness  of  God  leadeth  to 
repentance  "  is  overlooked.  It  tends  to  establish  the 
conviction  in  the  race  that  the  creation  is  indifferent, 
perhaps  favorable  to  selfishness.  Thus  the  determina- 
tion of  the  Creator's  benevolence  conditions,  for  a  period, 
at  least,  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked.  Nothing  but 
faith  in  God  prevents  the  best  men  from  conceding  the 
triumph  of  selfishness.  How  often  in  the  history  of 
man  have  thoughtful  persons  expressed  their  despair 
of  the  ultimate  triumph  of  right,  how  often  deplored 
the  triumph  of  wrong,  —  "  right  ever  on  the  scaffold, 
wrong  ever  on  the  throne  ! " 

Supernatural  intervention  is  here  irresistibly  forced 
upon  us  as  an  implication  of  conditioning  love.  It  is  here 
that  we  are  compelled  to  recognize  that  in  order  to 
condition  the  realization  of  a  perfect  universe,  love 
must  evolve  other  and  further  than  natural  incitements 
to  devotion  to  the  perfect.  If  the  finite  universe  or 
any  person  or  portion  of  it  is  preternaturally  condi- 
tioned by  the  general  defection,  so  as  to  be  destitute  of 
the  means  which  naturally  lead  to  devotion  to  the  per- 
fect, there  is  no  recourse  but  supernatural  means.  The 
least  and  lowest  form  of  action  which  love  can  take  is 
to  be  just.  But  justice  would  require  that  the  Creator 
must  in  this  juncture  cease  to  tolerate  the  existence 
of  persons  where  they  maintain  these  preternatural 
conditions ;  or  else  he  must  supplement  the  perverted, 
and  hence  inefficient  natural,  with  supernatural  condi- 


r62  the  evolution  of  love. 

tions  to  ultimate  harmony.  Love  must  end  them  in 
some  way  when  conditions  become  so  entirely  preter- 
natural as  to  collide  with  the  independence,  obscure 
the  moral  authority  and  pervert  the  benevolence  of 
God.  Either,  in  justice,  love  must  permit  the  preter- 
natural conditions  which  finite  wickedness  and  weak- 
ness have  established  to  work  its  own  immediate 
destruction ;  or,  in  mercy,  it  must  reassert  and  maintain 
the  natural  conditions  to  perfection  by  supernatural 
intervention.  The  former  would  be  a  surrender  of  the 
object  of  creation ;  the  latter  would  be  directly  in  the 
line  of  love's  evolution  of  a  perfect  universe. 

It  is  easy  to  see  what  divine  love  will  do.  The  whole 
matter  may  be  stated  in  a  sentence,  to  wit :  the  natural 
conditions  of  dependent  persons,  which  express  to  them 
the  independence,  moral  authority,  and  benevolent  pur- 
pose of  the  Creator,  are  superseded  by  preternatural 
conditions  which  these  persons,  by  their  self-determined 
perversity,  have  interposed ;  and  which  may  justly  be 
permitted  to  condition  their  self-destruction ;  and  which 
can  be  avoided  only  by  a  merciful  supernatural  dis- 
closure, which  will  make  good  to  them  the  original 
conditions  to  the  determination  of  their  perfection. 

It  is  not  indeed  a  question  of  what  love  can  do,  but 
what  love  as  objective  determination  must  and  will  do. 
When  the  free  abuses  of  dependent  persons  construct 
in  them  a  false  nature,  and  around  them  a  false  environ- 
ment, love  must  maintain  the  conditions  to  finite  per- 
fection by  transcending  nature.  Were  our  philosophy 
of  creative  or  natural  forces  merely  one  of  impersonal 
dynamics  we  should  be  puzzled,  indeed,  to  find  a  basis 
for  the  supernatural.  But  as  "creative  force"  stands 
in  our  thought  for  the  action  of  an  independent  person 


CREATION.  ^2 

whose  nature  is  love,  we  have  no  such  puzzle  on  our 
hands.  We  simply  inquire,  What  must  divine  action, 
in  devotement  to  perfect  being,  do?  When  human 
perversity  misappropriates  the  benevolence  of  love  by 
making  it  the  occasion  for  selfishness ;  and  prosperous 
selfishness  encourages  the  conviction  that  the  creation 
is  favorable,  or  at  least  indifferent  to  it ;  or  resulting 
adversity  begets  despair,  what  manifestation  does  the 
evolution  of  love  imply.  This  is  the  whole  question ; 
and  there  can  be  but  one  reply  :  The  supernatural  ! 

Does  this  argue,  after  all,  that  the  creation  of  depend- 
ent persons  at  the  lowest  point  of  intelligence  and  power 
at  which  self-determination  may  arise  is  imperfect?  By 
no  means.  The  impairment  of  their  natural  conditions 
is  not  the  impairment  of  the  divine  action  in  nature,  but 
their  self-determined  abuse  of  the  divine  action.  As  ob- 
served before,  their  freedom  is  the  only  menace  to 
essential  harmony,  and,  at  first  glance,  might  seem  a 
defect  in  the  creation,  but  is,  in  fact,  an  excellence,  — 
the  grand  excellence  which  constitutes  them  persons, 
distinguishes  the  objective  universe,  and  renders  possi- 
ble the  eternal  companionship  of  finite  and  infinite 
being.  The  perfection  of  creation  stands  out,  also,  in 
that  it  is  the  basis  upon  which  dependent  persons, 
through  a  schooling  of  weakness  and  innocent  error, 
may  avoid  sin,  intentional  wrong,  and  determine  their 
perpetual  harmony,  largest  freedom,  and  perfect  secur- 
ity. For  aught  we  know,  our  own  race  furnishes  the 
only  class  of  persons  who  have  failed  on  that  basis  ;  and 
possibly  more  of  them  than  we  are  aware  of  have  main- 
tained or  recovered  essential  harmony  without  definite 
intelligence  of  supernatural  motives ;  that  is,  by  renun- 
ciation of  selfishness. 


164 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


Further,  by  its  lowest  conditions  of  personal  self- 
determination  it  affords  the  whole  determination  and 
defeat  of  disharmony,  caused  by  either  error  or  design, 
at  the  lowest  stage  of  its  power  to  inflict  evil  on  the 
world.  The  earlier  demonstration  of  evil  affords  the 
earlier  intervention  of  the  supernatural.  This  also 
affords,  in  the  case  of  the  wilful  sinner,  the  greatest 
opportunity  that  wrong-doing  may,  either  in  natural 
or  supernatural  conditions,  prove  self-corrective  and 
not  retributive.  The  possible  determination  of  stead- 
fast love  toward  God  is  at  the  earliest,  and  possible 
incorrigibility  at  the  latest  stage  of  personal  develop- 
ment. 

That  this  supernatural  intervention,  as  seen  above, 
has  an  object  altogether  worthy  of  it  needs  no  argument. 

If  the  question  of  the  form  of  supernatural  disclosure 
is  raised,  by  way  of  objection  to  miracles,  for  example, 
then  we  must  make  the  following  affirmations:  (1)  the 
only  respect  in  which  we  can  affirm  that  the  activities  of 
God  in  nature  cannot  be  changed  is  in  their  essential 
character  as  conditioning  the  free  determination  of 
human  perfection,  by  evincing  the  independence,  the 
perfect  moral  authority,  and  the  changeless  holiness  and 
mercy  of  God  ;  (2)  any  supposable  revealment  of  super- 
natural motives  must  reiterate  or  accord  with  these ; 
(3)  the  phenomenal  form  in  which  it  may  vary  from 
the  natural  order  of  phenomena,  as  perceived  by  those 
to  whom  it  is  given,  does  no  violence  to  nature,  but  dis- 
tinguishes it  as  supernatural.  This  is  merely  a  question 
of  method  and  adaptation  to  the  persons  addressed  ;  and 
disbelief  in  miracles,  regarded  as  mere  departures  from 
the  usual  phenomenal  order  of  God's  action  in  nature 
is  but  a  quibble ;   (4)  if  such  departure  reiterates  and 


CREA  T10N. 


165 


emphasizes  the  essential  conditions  expressed  in  nature 
it  bears  prima  facie  evidence  of  its  validity. 

In  the  conditions  which  divine  love  maintains  in  all 
its  objective  action,  natural  and  supernatural,  it  makes 
good  to  the  objects  of  its  effort  its  own  independence, 
its  devotion  to  the  perfect,  its  beneficence,  or  supreme 
good,  and  sacredly  recognizes  the  self-determining  free- 
dom of  dependent  persons.  In  these  conditions  it 
affords  the  means  of  their  supreme  devotion  to  the  per- 
fect and  their  realization  of  companionship  with  God. 
Pressing  forward  to  the  realization  of  its  objective  ideal, 
the  perfect  universe,  love  must  be  thought  as  lengthening 
and  widening  its  benevolence  until  its  majestic  ideal  is 
realized.  Its  benevolent  conditioning  of  progressive  life 
renders  evil  corrective,  not  necessarily  retributive.  If  it 
shall  ever  become  retributive  it  must  be  by  the  fixed  de- 
termination of  the  wrong-doer,  who,  though  convinced  of 
the  excellence  of  love  and  the  despicable  nature  of 
selfishness,  persists  in  his  ill-chosen  course.  This  he 
may  do,  notwithstanding  infinite  love  ;  -and  divine  force 
cannot  intervene  to  save  him,  nor  to  inflict  upon  him 
aught  but  his  own  self-determined  perversion,  his  mal- 
adjustment to  a  love-conditioned  world.  This  is  but  to 
say  that  love  cannot  be  thought  to  reverse  its  own 
nature  and  all  its  evolution  in  order  to  avoid  a  collision 
which  must  be  ruinous  to  the  sinner  who  incorrigibly 
rejects  or  perverts  its  saving  conditions.  Incorrigi- 
ble determination  in  selfishness  is  not  only  the  evi- 
dence of  self-induced  limitations  of  one's  personality, 
but  is  the  continued  process  of  limitation,  until  per- 
sonality may  be  sunken  into  the  limitations  of  a  brute, 
fiend,  or  thing.  This  matter,  however,  is  treated  more 
fully  in  a  later  chapter.     It  is  only  noticed  here  as  a 


j 66  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

corollary  to  the  progressive  achievement  of  a  perfect 
universe. 

That  an  independent  being  determines  himself  as 
infinite  love,  and  projects  a  universe  which  in  its  pro- 
gressive development  settles  every  question,  casts  off 
every  crudity,  wears  out  every  abuse,  outlives  all  antag- 
onism, outgrows  all  but  necessary  conditions,  and 
persists,  composed  of  persons  fitted  by  the  highest  con- 
ditioned self-determination  to  be  the  finite  counterpart 
of  infinite  love  ;  that  eternity  shall  be  given  to  the  unem- 
barrassed unfolding  of  love's  resource  of  goodness,  power, 
and  glory,  in  the  harmonies  of  the  progressive  finite 
with  the  perfect  infinite,  —  is  the  only  self-sustaining 
philosophy  of  the  universe. 

The  divine  conception,  or  ideal,  of  conditioned  being 
having  been  wrought  by  man's  reciprocal  action  into 
the  perfect  self-consciousness  of  freedom,  harmony,  and 
security,  God  will  doubtless  continue  his  altruistic  life, 
as  "  from  the  beginning,"  Creator,  Upholder,  Revealer, 
and  Benefactor,  without  exhaustion  of  resource  or  arrest 
of  finite  progress.  The  structure  and  history  of  the  uni- 
verse, physical,  mental  and  moral,  continually  rounding 
into  a  synthesis  of  love,  will  continue  to  illustrate  the 
infinite  egoism  and  limitless  altruistic  freedom  of  God. 

Companionship  is  the  term  which  perhaps  best  ex- 
presses these  implications  of  love,  —  companionship  of 
the  finite  with  the  infinite.  This  companionship,  thus 
seen  to  be  the  bestowal  of  the  highest  conditioned  good, 
is  implied  as  the  purpose  of  the  creation.  Since  com- 
panionship is  the  first  form  of  relationship  as  subsisting 
between  the  absolute  and  the  relative  consciousness  in 
God,  it  must  be  thought  as  underlying  and  conditioning 
all  other  relations  which  arise  in  the  process  of  condi- 


CREATION. 


167 


tioned  existence.  Hence  this  companionship  is  prime 
motive  to  finite  minds,  and  must  be  the  criterion  by 
which  to  estimate  the  meaning  and  value  of  finite  being. 
When  we  think  of  the  infinite  Person  seeking  to 
bestow  an  endlessly  progressive  companionship,  we  are 
hurried  on  to  the  conception  of  a  universe  of  dependent 
persons,  in  endless  variety  of  powers,  who,  sometime 
and  somewhere,  may  know  and  enjoy  God  as  nearly  as 
friend  does  friend ;  reflecting  in  relative  detail  the 
imaged  phases  of  the  divine  nature.  And  as  the  love 
of  finite  persons,  reciprocating  that  of  the  infinite,  shall 
develop  the  being  and  doing  of  eternity,  faithful  in  a  few 
things  or  rulers  over  many,  the  splendors  of  love's  evo- 
lution will  vindicate  the  creation  and  prove  to  all  that 
the  greatest  of  blessings  is  BEING. 


!68  the  evolution  of  love. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    GENESIS   OF   EVIL. 

An  enemy  hath  done  this.  —  Jesus. 

The  preceding  chapter  closed  with  the  thought  of 
companionship  —  companionship  of  finite  beings  with 
the  infinite  Being  —  as  the  method  of  the  supreme  good, 
the  purpose  of  creation,  the  realization  of  a  perfect  uni- 
verse. Instead  of  absorption  of  the  finite  by  the  infinite, 
which  is  the  outcome  of  pantheism,  we  find  ever-pro- 
gressive companionship  with  the  infinite  to  be  the  out- 
come of  the  evolution  of  love.  We  recognize  this  as 
the  divine  conception,  the  divine  ideal,  of  conditioned 
being,  —  God's  finite  ideal  actualized  by  finite  beings. 

We  recognize  that,  upon  the  conditions  which  divine 
love  evolves,  dependent  persons  may  attain  a  develop- 
ment which  will  be  perfectly  free,  except  in  so  far  as 
their  existence  depends  on  God.  This  freedom  will  be 
a  self-determining  which  is  conscious  of  no  restraint 
from  without,  but  will  be  secure  in  the  consciousness  of 
perfect  intention,  holiness.  Perfect  intention,  the  holy 
quality  of  love,  will  assure  the  harmony  of  all.  Perfect 
companionship  implies  perfect  mutual  confidence  as  to 
each  other's  intention.  It  can  be  perfectly  self-con- 
scious only  in  freedom.  Security  in  this  free  compan- 
ionship is  the  grand  problem  of  free  being,  yet  this 
security  is  essential  to  that  companionship  which  realizes 
ideal  being.      The   perfect  personal  universe,    free    as 


THE   GENESIS    OF  EVIL.  ^9 

caprice,  harmonious  as  unity,  and  secure  as  fate,  is  what 
we  must  recognize  as  essential  in  the  ideal  universe 
which  love  seeks  to  realize  in  its  evolution. 

This  ideal  universe  carried  out  practically  will  achieve 
the  highest  conditioned  good.  This  good  must  be 
thought  such  that  each  person,  individually,  and  all 
persons,  universally,  may  make  their  being  better  upon 
the  whole  than  non-being ;  that  their  existence  may  be 
a  positive  blessing ;  and  that  failure  in  this  can  come 
about  only  by  their  own  determination.  This  is  the 
lowest  and  least  degree  of  good  which  can  be  thought 
in  accordance  with  love  as  the  nature  of  the  force  which 
has  chosen  to  evolve  the  dependent  world.  Conscious 
that  love  is  perfect  action,  God  chooses  to  evolve  from 
it  the  conditions  upon  which  free,  though  dependent 
persons  may  determine  dependent  perfection  in  them- 
selves, and  thereby  determine  a  perfect  universe. 

The  teleological  character  of  the  world  which  love 
evolves  is  in  this  choice.  It  seeks  the  perfection  of 
finite  being  as  a  requisite  end.  In  this  choice,  also,  is 
implied  the  immortality  of  all  persons  who  cannot  find 
in  a  limited  term  of  life  the  conditions  upon  which  they 
can  determine  their  perfection,  and  achieve  that  degree 
of  good  which  such  perfection  can  attain.  Since  perfect 
benevolence  is  love's  motive  for  creation,  and  the  bestow- 
ment  of  the  highest  good,  perfect  beneficence,  is  its 
purpose,  it  is  clear  that  their  realization  is  guaranteed  in 
love  as  consciously  perfect  action  ;  guaranteed  by  its 
conscious  ability  to  afford  the  highest  conditionable  good 
to  dependent  beings. 

As  finite  persons  are  self-determining,  within  their 
conditions,  it  follows  that  their  highest  good  can  be  de- 
termined by  their  free  conformity  to  those  conditions  of 


j70  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

their  being  which  love  evolves.  The  faculties  and  sus- 
ceptibilities with  which  they  are  endowed  and  the  envi- 
ronment in  which  they  are  placed  constitute  part  of  their 
conditions,  and  are  means  and  instruments  which  creative 
love  furnishes.  These  means  and  instruments  have  their 
use  in  achieving  the  excellence  and  satisfaction  of  their 
being,  and  hence  are  elements  of  their  good.  This  use 
is  in  their  true  adjustment  in  interaction  with  the 
Creator. 

The  benevolence  of  the  Creator  appears  in  the  fact 
that  the  highest  good  of  dependent  persons  results  from 
a  true  use  of  these  elements.  If  in  this  use  their  being 
prove  better,  more  desirable,  than  non-existence,  then 
their  being  is  good.  Further  :  if  by  ignorant  misuse  of 
themselves  or  of  their  environment  they  debase  these  con- 
ditions which  love  has  posited,  and  yet  may  determine  a 
life  which  upon  the  whole  is  better  than  non-being,  then 
their  being  is  a  beneficence,  a  blessing.  Yet  again :  if 
they  or  others  by  wilful  abuse  may  pervert  and  deprave 
themselves  and  the  general  environment,  and  yet  find 
it  possible  to  determine  a  personal  reform  and  ultimately 
find  their  way  to  a  true  use  of  their  conditions  to  the 
extent  that  their  being  is  upon  the  whole  better  than 
non-existence,  then  is  their  being  a  good  so  far  as  the 
Creator  is  responsible.  And  in  so  far  as  their  existence 
in  either  of  these  cases  is  more  desirable  than  non-exis- 
tence just  so  far  does  the  graciousness  of  the  creative 
choice  transcend  justice. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  finite  persons  should  realize  in 
their  use  of  these  elements  an  undesirable  existence, 
worthless  upon  the  whole  to  them,  then  their  being  is 
not  a  good.  Or  if  it  prove  worse  than  worthless  their 
being  is  a  positive  evil.     Further  :  if  by  misuse  of  them- 


THE  GENESIS  OF  EVIL.  1^1 

selves  or  their  environment  they  realize  that  their  life  is 
not  worth  living,  then  is  their  being  a  positive  evil.  Hence 
evil  is  that  practical  result  which  would  arise  either 
through  failure  of  a  creator  to  condition  good  to  finite 
persons  or  by  their  misuse  of  their  conditions. 

But  since  love  is  the  nature  of  that  action  which  con- 
ditions the  existence  of  finite  persons,  it  implies  that  the 
true  use  of  these  conditions  by  them  must  result  in  their 
good.  If,  therefore,  this  good  upon  the  whole  is 
thwarted  or  prevented  in  any  degree  it  must  be  by  their 
determination,  their  free  misuse,  abuse,  of  their  condi- 
tions. This  practical  result,  which  renders  finite  being  a 
doubtful  good,  or  even  worse  than  non-being,  is  what,  in 
the  largest  sense,  we  term  evil. 

The  questions  which  arise  regarding  evil  are  forced 
upon  us  by  the  experience  of  evil  as  an  historical,  fact. 
But.  aside  from  this  fact,  the  evolution  of  love,  in 
conditioning  the  existence  of  personal  beings,  consis- 
tently implies  the  liability  of  the  abuse  of  those  condi- 
tions by  the  free  self-determination  which  constitutes 
them  persons.  Hence  evil  which  must  result  from  this 
abuse  is  a  question  which  must  be  met. 

Up  to  this  point  in  our  outline  the  evolution  of  love 
has  disclosed  a  Creator  and  creation  that  are  wholly  good. 
But  now  right  across  the  path  of  this  development  there 
opens  to  our  thought  a  chasm  of  wellnigh  infinite  terror  ; 
and  in  both  finite  consciousness  and  human  history 
arises  the  appalling  fact  of  evil. 

This  fact  imposes  two  leading  questions  which  demand 
solution.  The  first  is  :  How  does  evil  arise  in  a  universe 
which  originally  is  wholly  good?  The  second  is  :  How 
are  the  difficulties  which  evil  presents  to  be  met  and 
overcome  by  love,  so  as  to  realize  perfect  benevolence ; 


172 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


that  is,  so  as  to  accomplish  a  degree  of  good  to  finite 
beings,  each  and  all,  which  is  sufficient  to  justify  the  cre- 
ation ;  even  more,  to  actualize  an  ideal  universe  ?  More 
succinctly  :  How  does  love  in  its  evolution  proceed  to 
determine  perfect  benevolence,  notwithstanding  evil? 
These  questions  make  up  "  The  Problem  of  Evil."  The 
first  which  confronts  us,  then,  in  attempting  the  solution 
of  this  problem  is  — 

The  genesis  of  evil.  How  can  evil  arise  in  a  universe 
which  is  wholly  good? 

There  is  nowhere  discernible  an  original  germ  or 
factor  of  evil  in  the  divine  nature  or  its  evolution. 
There  can  be  no  evil  in  this  world  except  by  the  dis- 
ordering of  good  elements ;  and  this  disordering  must 
come  through  the  misadjustment  of  themselves  to  all- 
conditioning  love,  by  dependent  persons.  The  notion 
of  a  conflict  of  good  and  evil  as  eternal  forces  is  a  hoary 
myth.  That  evil  is  an  "  original  principle  "  is  a  crude 
assumption. 

To  define  evil  as  being  a  free  perversion  of  self-love, 
which  disorders  good  elements  by  wrong  adjustment 
of  personal  nature  and  relationship,  resulting  in  dis- 
proportionate use,  abuse,  takes  up  all  there  is  in  the 
notion  or  knowledge  of  evil.  This  definition  contains 
a  full  account  of  the  genesis  of  evil  in  a  universe 
which  is  originally  good  throughout.  The  whole  con- 
flict betwixt  good  and  evil  is  a  question  of  right 
adjustment  of  persons,  —  within  themselves,  each,  and 
among  themselves,  all,  —  and  the  resulting  use  or  abuse 
of  faculties  and  susceptibilities  which  are  good  in 
themselves. 

If  we  contemplate  a  person  in  process  of  devel- 
opment  we    must   see  in   his   conditions  these  phases 


THE   GENESIS  OE  EVIL.  !^ 

of  love's  evolution  ;  we  must  see  him  as  the  imper- 
sonation, the  personal  enacting  of  these  definitions : 
(i)  Love  is  devotion  to  the  realization  of  ideal  being. 
(2)  Self-love  is  devotion  to  the  realization  of  an  ideal 
self.  (3)  Ideal  being  is  an  imperative  criterion  for 
actual  finite  being.  (4)  Love's  actualization  of  abso- 
lute perfection  in  the  independent  being,  God,  is  the 
source  of  love's  authority  in  the  ideal  as  the  criterion 
of  dependent  being.  (5)  Faith  is  that  supreme  con- 
fidence in  love's  ideal,  the  truth,  which  subjects  the 
actual  to  the  ideal  in  all  self-determination. 

This  impersonation,  though  finite,  is  an  ego  who  is 
capable  of  entire  benevolence,  unselfishness.  He  is  his 
best  self  in  being  his  best  for  others.  Losing  his  life  he 
finds  it.  By  intentional  conformity  to  the  ideal,  he  is 
holy.  In  practical  conformity  to  his  ideal  he  is  wholly 
benevolent. 

History  records  one  such  man,  at  least,  the  man  of 
Nazareth.  His  undeviating  subjection  of  actual  self, 
amidst  boundless  provocation  to  the  contrary,  was  that 
perfect  faith  which  operates  by  love ;  the  evidence  of 
an  all-dominating,  though  unseen  ideal ;  the  actualiza- 
tion of  all  that  is  "  hoped  for  "  in  a  pure  self-love  which, 
"for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him,  endured  the  cross, 
despising  shame."  Even  if  the  world  could  be  per- 
suaded that  this  record  is  mythical,  its  portrayal  of  these 
characteristics  as  the  requisites  of  a  perfect  man,  requi- 
site to  a  life  which  is  wholly  good,  reflects  the  deepest 
convictions  of  human  consciousness.  The  readiness 
with  which  sincere  thought  everywhere  yields  the  first 
place  to  this  man  over  all  heroes,  real  or  fictitious,  is 
but  the  common  acknowledgment  that  his  was  a  truly 
adjusted  life;  that  if  all  dependent  persons  were  like 


174  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

him  in  their  self-adjustment,  the  universe  would  be 
wholly  good. 

The  law  of  universal  adjustment  is  devotion  to  perfec- 
tion of  being,  the  conformity  of  dependent  persons  to 
the  independent.  It  is  the  principle  which  the  Stoics 
dimly  apprehended  in  their  "conformity  to  Nature." 
But  when  we  recognize  nature  as  the  activities  of  divine 
love  which  constitute  the  conditions  upon  which  de- 
pendent beings  develop  themselves,  we  recognize  it 
as  personal  companionship  of  finite  with  the  infinite, 
or  independent.  This  is  only  stating  that  as  law  which 
is  the  spontaneity  of  love  as  action,  —  the  actualizing  of 
conditioned  perfection  in  finite  persons.  The  whole 
philosophy  of  being,  as  involved  and  evolved  by  love, 
is  expressed  in  this  law.  Reality  is  action,  action  is 
life,  perfectly  adjusted  life  is  love,  and  love  is  devotion 
to  the  realization  of  perfect  being.  The  practical  evo- 
lution of  progressive  being  according  to  this  law  shows 
that  self-love  and  love  toward  fellow-beings,  and  supreme 
love  to  God  are  subjectively  one.  They  are  identically 
devotion  to  perfection  of  being. 

Pure  self-love,  though  necessarily  the  first  develop- 
ment of  love  in  a  progressive  being,  eventually  de- 
velops love  to  fellow-beings  and  to  God.  Hence 
it  naturally  evolves  harmonious  universal  adjustment. 
This  is  to  say  that  the  harmony  of  the  personal  universe 
is  not  dependent  upon  a  theoretic  knowledge  in  each 
person  of  the  relations  of  his  being  or  of  the  nature  of 
God,  but  depends  upon  the  instinctive  prompting  of 
self-love.  Universal  harmony  does  not  depend  upon  a 
high  degree  of  intelligence,  but  is  spontaneously  evolved 
by  self-love.  It  spontaneously  prompts  a  pure,  though 
ignorant  being  to  seek  to  realize  his  best  self. 


THE   GENESIS   OF  EVIL.  r^ 

The  fact  of  conscious  existence  gives  birth  to  self- 
love  ;  the  fact  of  dependence  upon  others,  and  the  fact 
of  inter-dependence  with  others  leads  to  the  reciprocal 
adjustment  of  self-love ;  and  the  fact  of  the  dependence 
of  all  gives  the  sense  of  common  dependence  upon  a 
common  independent ;  the  fact  of  the  independent  is 
the  fact  of  God.  Dependence  upon  the  implied  fact, 
the  independent,  is  the  simplest  form  of  faith ;  and 
faith  is  the  condition  out  of  which  love  spontaneously 
arises. 

My  experience  of  an  abidingly  interacting  force  in 
my  physique,  consciousness,  sensation,  perception,  rea- 
son, feelings,  and  moral  sense  gives  me  the  constant 
basis  upon  which  I  achieve  the  claims  and  aspirations 
of  self-love.  Interacting  with  the  activities  thus  given 
in  my  nature  I  develop  a  personal  egoism  in  the  direc- 
tion of  self-love,  and  find  by  experience  that  they  are, 
each  and  all,  factors  of  good  in  me.  Not  only  do  I 
find  a  resulting  good,  but  also  a  constantly  enlarging 
conception  of  higher  good  than  as  yet  attained.  I  am 
"saved  by  hope"  from  satisfaction  with  present  good 
and  my  present  self,  and  am  prompted  to  the  attain- 
ment of  higher  good  and  a  nobler  personality.  Thus, 
self-love  instigates  progressive  development. 

Experience  of  the  past  assures  me  that  this  hoped 
good  must  be  realized,  if  at  all,  by  my  personal  develop- 
ment into  it ;  that  it  must  come  to  me  in  the  form  of 
enlarged  personal  capabilities  and  diminished  limita- 
tions. Thus,  naturally,  spontaneously  arises  in  the 
vision  of  self-love  a  conception  of  what  manner  of 
being  I  desire,  may,  and  ought  to  become.  This  is 
my  ideal  self.  Persons  may  be  ignorant,  crude,  and 
weak,   but   all   who   have   a   definite   consciousness  of 


I7g  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

themselves  do  have  and  use,  however  unscientifically, 
the  facts,  being,  self-love,  and  an  ideal,  or  best  self. 
This  best  self,  which  aspires  to  association  with  the 
perfect,  is  chief  motive  to  self-love  in  a  rightly  adjusted, 
progressive  being.  It  is  this  to  which  self-love  is 
devoted. 

A  perfect  self,  within  my  conditions,  is  an  object  of 
devotement  which  is  consistent  with  all  other  rightful 
objects.  Love  never  asks  of  me  real  self-degradation 
for  the  sake  of  another.  The  devotement  of  self-love,  in 
that  it  ever  seeks  to  realize  perfection,  is  one  with  pure 
love.  In  it  is  nothing  derogatory  to  others,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  it  finds  its  best  disposition  toward  others  in 
being  its  best  self.  Seeking  the  highest  possible  egoism 
it  realizes  the  greatest  possible  altruism.  Pure  self- 
love,  in  a  dependent  person,  gives  birth  to  pure  love 
toward  others.  Or,  what  is  the  same,  devotion  to  the 
achievement  of  a  perfect  self  spontaneously  loves  others, 
because  love  and  self-love  are  subjectively  one. 

But  this  same  instinctive  self-love  must  practically  lead 
to  the  recognition  of  self-love  in  others  as  the  primary 
right  and  guiding  devotement  of  their  self-determination. 
And  its  natural  benevolence  must  realize  in  them  a  love 
for  each  other.  Their  interdependence  in  attaining  the 
practical  interests  of  self-love  must,  in  a  practical  way, 
develop  and  crystallize  as  the  habit  of  their  being  and 
the  central  basis  of  individual  and  universal  good. 
That  which  intuitively  holds  sacred  the  rights  of  self- 
love,  in  all  their  relations  to  each  other,  must  recognize 
its  identity  with  pure  love  ;  its  identity  with  unselfish 
devotion  to  the  self-perfecting  of  others.  Thus,  in 
practice,  uncorrupted  self-love  is  nothing  other  than 
love  egoistic  and  altruistic,  —  the  harmonizing  basis,  or 


THE   GENESIS  OF  EVIL. 


177 


law,  of  adjustment  for  all  dependent  persons.  Thus  self- 
love,  in  all  its  grades  as  a  subjective  impulse,  instinct, 
intuition,  affection,  or  devotement,  develops  love  in  its  al- 
truistic form  as  the  leading  and  harmonious  mode  of 
action  among  fellow-beings.  It  spontaneously  actualizes 
that  rule  of  perfect  morality,  "  As  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  also  unto  them." 

But  when  the  elements  of  my  nature,  which  are  at 
once  the  action  of  the  Creator  and  the  basis  of  my 
interaction  with  him,  are  appropriated  by  my  self-love 
they  lead  to  a  yet  higher  good  than  what  is  realized  in 
my  relations  with  finite  beings.  As  ultimate  depend- 
ence upon  God  comes  to  be  recognized,  love  toward 
God,  as  supreme,  is  developed  from  self-love.  And  as 
conscience  discloses  the  authority  of  the  perfect,  as  a 
moral  condition  upon  which  alone  my  intentions  can  be 
self-satisfying,  I  identify  the  divine  source  of  that  author- 
itative ideal  self.  By  so  much  as  self-love  apprehends 
its  ideal,  and  by  actualizing  it  realizes  practical  good,  by 
so  much  it  develops  appreciation  of  being ;  and  by  so 
much  it  recognizes  and  reciprocates  the  love  of  its 
author,  God.  In  striving  toward  the  actualization  of 
ideal  selfhood  it  thus  becomes  conscious  of  pure  love 
toward  all  upon  whom  it  depends.  Finding  thus,  in 
the  fact  of  dependence  and  the  desire  for  highest  good 
and  the  moral  imperative  of  conscience,  a  changeless 
basis  for  the  ideal  self  in  his  nature,  as  posited  by  the 
Creator,  man  is  assured  of  the  harmony  of  self-love  with 
the  love  of  God,  and  is  reassured  in  his  aspiration  to 
companionship  with  the  perfect.  Thus,  from  the  lowest 
consciousness  of  personal  being,  instinctively  and  spon- 
taneously it  is  the  nature  of  self-love  to  develop  supreme 
love  toward  God. 

12 


178 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


In  this  process  each  mode  of  love,  self-love,  love  of 
fellow-beings,  and  love  of  God,  retains  its  object  and 
characteristics ;  and  all  are  wholly  good.  They  each 
and  all  realize  in  the  consciousness  of  the  progressive 
person  the  definitions  given  above,  namely :  (1)  Love 
is  devotion  to  the  realization  of  perfect  being.  (2)  Self- 
love  is  devotion  to  the  realization  of  a  perfect,  or  ideal, 
self.  (3)  Ideal  being  is  an  imperative  criterion  for  actual 
finite  being.  (4)  Love's  actualization  of  absolute  per- 
fection in  God  is  the  source  of  authority,  the  ground  of 
moral  obligation,  felt  to  be  in  the  ideal  criterion  of 
actual  being  in  man.  (5)  Faith,  the  subservience  of 
the  actual  to  the  ideal. 

In  all  these  definitions  the  subjective  unity  of  self-love 
with  love  of  fellow-beings  and  love  of  God  is  maintained  ; 
and  the  natural  order  of  their  development  in  rightly- 
adjusted,  progressive  life  must  be,  first,  self-love; 
secondly,  love  toward  fellow-beings ;  thirdly,  love  toward 
God.  Each  has  in  it  the  law  of  universal  personal 
adjustment,  devotion  to  perfection  of  being.  Fidelity 
to  one  of  these  modes  involves  fidelity  to  all.  Treachery 
in  one  is  treachery  in  all. 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  self-love  is  not  only  holy,  but  has 
in  it  that  which  can  keep  it  holy.  As  long  as  a  person 
aspires  to  actualize  his  best  self  his  self-love  abides  at 
one  with  love,  and  realizes  in  practical  ways  that  this 
companionship  with  the  perfect  is  his  highest  con- 
ditioned good.  A  universe  of  beings,  each  maintaining 
a  true  self-love,  maintains  essential  harmony  throughout, 
and  is  wholly  good. 

Disordered  self-love  must  disorder  the  personal  de- 
termination and  misadjust  the  entire  relationship.  Thus 
it   must  break  up  companionship  with  the  perfect,  and 


THE  GENESIS  OF  EVIL.  x  yo 

obstruct  the  method  of  supreme  good.  While  one 
dependent  person  cannot  determine  others  he  does 
determine  himself  within  his  conditions.  He  deter- 
mines his  love,  or  supreme  devotement,  and  what  he  will 
seek  as  his  supreme  good.  To  intend  his  best  self, 
devoted  to  realizing  self-perfection,  can  alone  be  that 
pure  self-love  which  becomes  consciously  one  with  love 
of  fellow-beings  and  of  God.  Hence  the  free  inten- 
tion to  become  his  best  self,  or  to  be  something  other 
and  lower  than  this,  must  decide  whether  or  not  he  will 
keep  his  self-love  pure,  —  one  with  love  toward  God  and 
fellow-beings. 

We  remember  that  the  self-determining  intentions  of 
dependent  persons,  though  free,  are  conditioned.  These 
intentions  are  formed  by  the  use  of  the  preliminary 
means  of  faculties  and  susceptibilites  which  are  awak- 
ened in  our  nature  by  external  circumstances.  Also, 
their  intentions  are  dependent  upon  supplementary 
effort,  often  continuous  and  repeated,  to  give  them  full 
determination.  Their  self-determination,  in  a  word,  is 
by  use  of  preliminary  and  supplementary  means.  We 
bear  in  mind,  too,  that  this  is  necessarily  the  nature  of 
conditioned  being ;  not  an  arbitrary  whim  of  creation. 
None  but  the  independent  person  can  determine  him- 
self without  means  or  conditions. 

Susceptibility  of  self-love  to  perversion,  within  these 
faculties  and  susceptibilities,  is  the  point  of  evil  incep- 
tion. Free  will  is  capable  of  choosing  evil,  but  it  is  not 
sufficient  to  account  for  the  genesis  of  evil  in  the  ab- 
sence of  susceptibility  to  motives  which  incite  disorder. 
One  is  capable  of  choosing  as  a  matter  of  will  a  serpent 
instead  of  fish  for  food,  but  there  is  not  the  slightest 
probability  that  he  will  do  so  while  he  has  no  suscepti- 


!80  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

bility,  appetite,  for  serpents.  But  if  he  has  an  appetite 
which  is  susceptible  to  perversion  he  may  come  to  de- 
sire such  food.  If  we  must  account  for  his  making  such 
choice  it  is  not  sufficient  to  say,  He  is  free  to  will  it. 
We  must  find  in  his  demand  for  food  the  possible 
appetence,  or  susceptibility,  which  may  be  excited  and 
gratified  by  such  food.  So,  also,  the  freedom  of  the 
will  may  account  for  the  possibility  of  sin,  but  not  for 
the  probability.  The  improbability  of  the  rise  of  evil  is 
practically  equal  to  an  impossibility,  but  for  the  sus- 
ceptibility to  selfishness  which  may  be  developed  in 
the  righteous  satisfaction  of  pure  self-love. 

Self-love  is  susceptible  to  perversion,  naturally  and 
innocently.  The  good  and  pleasure  of  actually  pos- 
sessed powers  afford  a  stand-point  from  which  self-love 
may  deem  it  a  hardship  to  forego  them  for  the  sake  of 
attaining  other  good  and  pleasure  which  may  be  realized 
in  a  higher  and  different,  but  untried  self-development. 
Hence  arises  the  liability  to  abide  in  the  enjoyment  of 
actually  attained  good,  exercising  and  developing  to  ex- 
cess those  feelings  which  it  gratifies,  rather  than  to  use 
them  as  the  preliminary  means,  the  stepping-stones,  to 
unrealized,  but  higher  modes  of  life.  This  excessive 
development  of  the  lower,  and  the  dwarfing,  by  neglect 
and  violation,  of  the  susceptibilities  to  higher  motives 
disorders  the  whole  system  and  office  of  susceptibility, 
and  substitutes  an  actually  attained  self  for  the  ideal 
self  which  a  progressive  being  must  ever  hold  as  the 
criterion  of  action,  and  which  is  essential  to  the  purity 
of  self-love. 

The  probability  of  the  departure  of  innocent  persons 
from  the  purity  of  self-love  lies  in  this  susceptibility  to 
temptation  to   undue   gratification,   which   arises   from 


THE   GENESIS  OF  EVIL.  !8i 

naturally  and  innocently  acquired  good.  Yielding  to 
it  they  determine  an  undue  development  of  some  of 
their  feelings  and  powers ;  and  this,  too,  at  the  expense 
of  neglecting  and  violating  others.  Thus  they  distort 
the  whole  system  of  motivity  which  subsists  between 
subjective  affections  and  the  objective  means  of  their 
use  in  the  development  of  personal  character. 

Thus  they  pervert  their  relations  towards  God  and 
fellow-beings.  They  determine  themselves  otherwise 
than  according  to  their  created  nature.  This  self- 
determined  distortion  of  their  nature  is  devotement  to 
the  gratification  of  the  actual,  the  imperfect  self.  It  is 
the  neglect  and  rejection  of  that  ideal  self  which  is 
present  to  them,  backed  by  the  authority  of  conscience 
in  their  progressive  nature;  and  it  is  the  rejection  of 
the  method  of  higher  good.  Hence  it  is  that  the 
innocent  pleasure  or  ambition  which  affords  a  probable 
choice  of  the  excessive  indulgence  of  actually  attained 
powers  may  prevent  the  attaining  higher  powers  and 
higher  good  which  are  to  be  realized  in  progressive 
harmony  with  universal  adjustment  in  devotion  to  per- 
fection of  being. 

By  such  perversion  of  a  person  and  of  his  relations 
to  other  persons  he  assumes  to  be  a  centre  to  which 
he  demands  the  interests  of  all  others  shall  be  accommo- 
dated ;  and  he  becomes  an  incitement  or  snare  to  like 
perversion  in  others.  Thus  selfishness  may  be  estab- 
lished, not  only  in  his  determination  of  himself,  but  in 
the  world.  Thus  a  pure  finite  person  finds  in  what  he 
actually  is  a  motive  which  may  lure  him  from  what  he 
should  become,  —  lure  him  into  a  selfish  and  therefore 
vicious  life.  Thus  this  susceptibility  in  all  finite  per- 
sons menaces  the  harmony  of  the  universe  with  mo- 


x82  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

tivity  to  evil.  Thus  the  "  freedom  of  the  will  "  finds 
the  occasion  upon  which  its  determination  for  selfish- 
ness is  not  only  possible,  but  probable. 

Human  history  affords  practical  illustration,  in  a 
thousand  ways,  of  the  innocent  susceptibility  of  self-love 
to  a  guilty  and  offensive  disorder,  which  we  have  seen 
must  be  thought  incident  to  any  class  of  conditioned 
persons.  The  primary  conditions  of  human  existence, 
which  are  established  by  divine  love,  provide  for  the 
progress  of  human  personality  toward  conditioned  per- 
fection, but  in  these  conditions  of  progress  is  the  incep- 
tion of  disorder.  The  knowledge  of  susceptibility  to 
evil,  in  conditioned  persons,  is  disclosed  by  conscious- 
ness of  their  progressive  life.  It  is  not  dependent  upon 
human  experience  of  evil,  but  is  merely  corroborated  by 
it.  Human  history  evinces  that  the  rise  of  evil  in  an 
innocent  self-love  is  not  a  difficult  or  far-fetched  con- 
ception, but  an  overshadowing  fact,  illustrated  in  the 
excessive  indulgence  of  some,  and  the  repression  of 
other  natural  and  innocent  susceptibilities  and  faculties. 
This  is  their  abuse.  The  question  of  good  and  evil  as 
known  to  the  human  race  is  wholly  one  of  use  and 
abuse.  Use  is  the  harmonious  employment  of  faculties, 
affections,  and  objects  with  reference  to  progressive  per- 
sonal development.  Abuse  is  their  disproportionate 
employment,  some  in  excess,  others  in  repression,  and 
hence,  in  disordered  relation.  Self-love  is  the  self- 
determining  devotement  which  decides  whether  in  use 
or  abuse  it  will  seek  its  highest  good.  Clinging  to  ac- 
tual self  and  its  good,  self-love  becomes  selfishness  ;  and 
this  perversion  is  the  origin  of  all  that  has  issued  in 
disorder,  abuse,  and  degradation. 

Whatever   of  poetic   or   allegorical   setting    may   be 


THE   GENESIS  OF  EVIL.  ^3 

claimed  for  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  "  fall  of  man  "  it 
contains  the  data  of  a  real  fall.  The  real  fall  is  the  dis- 
tortion of  inner  affections  which,  had  they  been  exer- 
cised and  gratified  in  their  proper  relation  to  a  true 
self-love,  would  have  developed  harmonious  character. 
The  gratification  of  curiosity  or  appetite,  as  means, 
could  not  be  otherwise  than  innocent  and  good  while 
subject  to  a  better  self  which  was  maintained  by  har- 
mony with  their  Creator,  in  the  simple  form  of  obedi- 
ence. But,  made  an  end  to  be  attained  at  the  expense 
of  their  affection  for  God,  this  gratification  was  an  abuse, 
which  excessively  developed  the  lower  and  dwarfed  or 
abolished  the  higher  susceptibility  of  self-love  to  the 
ideal.  In  this  action  self-love  is  turned  from  its  devo- 
tion to  an  ideal  life  in  :ommunion  with  God,  into  devo- 
tion to  actual  self  and  its  desires.  This  is  a  real  fall, 
which  rejects  interaction  with  love  and  assumes  vassalage 
to  an  actual  but  imperfect  and  now  morbid,  depraved 
self. 

Nor  need  we  go  back  to  Eden  to  know  the  reality  of 
this  fall.  It  is  around  and  in  us  daily.  Selfishness  or 
perverted  self-love  is  the  acknowledged  source  and 
energy  of  all  the  other  abuses  under  which  humanity 
groans.  As  self-degradation  has  come  about  by  abuse 
of  subjective  endowments  in  their  relation  to  external 
means,  these  have  been  wrought  into  mighty  forces  for 
evil :  insomuch  that  the  physical  and  mental  as  well  as 
the  moral  world  are  filled  with  evil  energies.  The  pos- 
session of  the  soil  and  mine,  the  appropriation  of  their 
products,  the  very  air  and  sunlight  are  subjected  to 
abuse  by  man's  false  ethical  adjustment  toward  them. 

As  to  how  much  present  human  selfishness  and  evil 
bias  is  hereditary,  or  how  much  is  individually  self-in- 


184 


THE  EVOLUTION  OP  LOVE. 


duced,  it  is  not  pertinent  to  discuss  here.  We  know 
that  our  conditions  are  largely  awry  by  reason  of  the 
modifications  which  human  selfishness  has  imposed  upon 
the  original  conditions  which  the  Creator  posits  for  our 
progressive  being.  Yet  science  sustains  no  truth  more 
firmly  than  that  the  more  thoroughly  we  know  and 
nicely  interact  with  the  Creator's  action,  the  order  of 
which  is  termed  "  natural  law,"  the  greater  good  and 
the  greater  progress  in  all  that  is  good  do  we  realize. 
Not  only  does  this  corroborate  the  fact  of  divine  ben- 
evolence, but  evinces  that  harmony  with  the  divine 
action  is  the  true  use,  and  antagonism  to  that  action  is 
the  abuse,  of  both  ourselves  and  our  environment ; 
evinces  that  use  is  the  law  of  welfare  or  good,  while  our 
miseries  are  born  of  abuse. 

Whether  we  regard  man  as  a  fresh  creation  when  he 
appeared  as  represented  in  Eden,  or  as  a  gradually 
evolved  moral  being  prior  to  such  appearance,  the  pic- 
ture of  Edenic  loveliness  seems  an  appropriate  environ- 
ment to  his  unsullied  state,  seems  so  as  an  exhibition  of 
love's  creative  harmonies.  By  so  much  also,  when  he  is 
fallen,  does  an  unsubdued  and  riotous  natural  world  seem 
an  appropriate  arena  which  may  discipline  him  into  a 
true  use  of  himself  by  his  effort  to  subdue  it  to  his  ser- 
vice. More  accurately  stated,  —  the  hardships  of  his 
natural  environment  result  from  his  false  adjustment  to 
it  by  his  abuses,  and  by  their  corrective  tendency  they 
reprove  these  abuses  and  suggest  his  reformation  to  pro- 
gressive development  as  the  remedy  for  these  hardships. 
The  ground  "cursed  for  his  sake"  —  that  is,  cursed  on 
account  of  his  false  attitude  in  relation  to  it  —  yet  vital 
with  the  activities  of  love's  creative  energies,  invites  man 
to  return  to  the  true  use  of  himself  that  he  may  recover 


THE   GENESIS  OF  EVIL. 


185 


it  to  right  adjustment  and  Edenic  loveliness.  But  while 
man  clings  to  the  abuses  of  selfishness  the  whole  crea- 
tion must  continue  to  "  groan  and  travail  in  pain,  await- 
ing the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God." 

The  historical  realization  of  selfishness  illustrates  its 
genesis  and  effect  as  a  disturbance  in  the  evolution  of 
love.  It  is  equally  clear  that  such  disturbance  or  dis- 
ordering of  originally  good  elements  cannot  have  taken 
place  except  as  the  chosen  act  of  finite  persons.  A 
person  who  thus  falsely  adjusts  himself  disturbs  the 
original  harmony  of  being.  He  is  a  perverter  who  puts 
a  false  meaning  into  his  relations  to  God  and  fellow- 
beings,  assigns  them  the  false  character  of  enemies  or 
servants,  and  abuses  their  action  toward  himself.  He  is 
a  "false  accuser,"  and  the  person  who  chose  to  be  the 
first  perverter  of  good  may  well  be  termed,  by  bad 
pre-eminence,  the  Devil. 

Much  sceptical  ado  has  been  made  in  ridicule  of  the 
fact  of  a  personal  Devil,  but  this  only  raises  the  suspicion 
that  these  sceptics  have  never  thought  far  enough  into 
the  question  to  discern  that  they  must  either  accept  this 
fact  or  hold  to  the  doctrine  that  evil  is  a  principle,  or 
quality,  of  independent  being ;  hold  to  the  eternal  coex- 
istence of  evil  with  good ;  which  doctrine,  of  course, 
has  no  rational  support,  but  is  one  of  the  crude  supersti- 
tions of  Dualism.  If,  of  these  two  qualities,  only  good 
is  from  eternity,  then  evil  has  originated  as  a  perversion 
of  good  elements ;  and  if  so,  this  perversion  is  the  act 
of  a  person  or  persons ;  and  the  first  of  these  persons 
thus  guilty  may  be  styled  the  Devil,  or  "  false  accuser," 
with  entire  propriety.  But,  name  him  what  we  will,  his 
personal  agency  and  identity  must  be  admitted,  as  a 
logical  necessity.      Moreover,  the  first  of  sinners  may 


jSS  the  evolution  of  love. 

with  equal  propriety  be  referred  to  as  in  a  representative 
capacity ;  and  the  whole  course  of  evil  which  has  suc- 
ceeded his  initial  perversion  of  good  may  be,  in  this 
sense,  termed  the  "works  of  the  Devil." 

To  sum  up  at  this  point :  Perfection  of  personal  being 
consists  in  freedom  from  conditions ;  hence  God  alone 
is  absolutely  perfect.  Dependent  persons  must  always 
be  dependent  for  their  existence,  but  may  become  per- 
fect within  the  conditions  of  this  dependence.  The 
whole  evolution  of  love  affords  conditions  to  the  pro- 
gressive development  of  dependent  persons ;  hence  their 
right  adjustment  to  these  conditions  is  in  using  them  for 
progress  toward  their  dependent  perfection.  The  pro- 
gress of  developing  personality  from  the  most  limited 
personal  consciousness  consists  in  the  mastery  of  limit- 
ing conditions,  and  throwing  them  off  as  they  are  tran- 
scended by  progressive  self-determination.  All  condi- 
tions to  progress  incite  to  progressive  determination  by 
affording  motivity  thereto.  In  the  term  "motivity"  we 
include  both  objective  incitements  and  the  inner  suscep- 
tibility which  may  be  awakened,  exercised,  and  satisfied 
by  objective  incitements.  When  personal  determination 
progresses  beyond  the  need  of  any  class  of  conditions, 
the  incitements  of  that  class  should  be  dismissed  from 
their  motivity.  The  child  who  is  old  enough  to  appre- 
ciate a  drum  or  gun,  yet  clings  to  his  rattle-box,  is  sus- 
pected of  idiocy.  Or  a  man  who  is  sane  enough  to 
distinguish  excellence  of  character  from  physical  pleas- 
ure, yet  continues  supremely  devoted  to  the  latter,  is 
convicted,  not  of  idiocy,  but  moral  depravity.  Hence 
experienced  progress  teaches  self-love  that  these  tempo- 
rary conditions  are  but  means  to  higher  self-develop- 
ment, —  stepping-stones  to  the  higher  and  wider  condi- 


THE   GENESIS  OF  EVIL. 


187 


tions  of  a  nobler  personality.  But  such  may  have  been 
the  interest,  the  enjoyment  of  these  outgrown  conditions 
as  to  make  them  still  alluring  objects ;  and  such  may  be 
the  hardship  of  new  and  higher  conditions  as  to  render 
them,  in  themselves,  uninviting,  —  only  desirable  for  the 
better  self-development  to  be  attained  by  using  them. 
The  charm  of  progress  toward  a  better  life,  devotion  to 
perfection  of  being,  a  better  self,  is  the  only  motivity 
that  can  be  depended  upon  in  such  a  crisis.  Faith  and 
love,  in  some  form  or  other,  can  alone  afford  motivity 
by  which  the  soul  may  transcend  this  besetment.  But 
to  continue  in  the  exercise  and  satisfaction  of  those 
means  which  have  fulfilled  their  use  is  to  make  the  en- 
joyment incident  to  them  the  object  of  self-determina- 
tion. Self-determination  chooses  not  to  progress  beyond 
them ;  and  the  actual  self,  now  attained,  is  the  object  to 
which  self-determination  is  now  devoted.  The  ideal,  or 
better  self  is  ignored,  rejected.  Perfection  of  being  and 
companionship  with  the  perfect  are  set  at  naught.  Self- 
love  chooses  its  good  in  whatever  may  gratify  this  actual, 
but  imperfect,  self.  It  is  no  longer  devotion  to  the 
perfection  of  self,  to  the  realization  of  an  ideal  self,  but 
is  devoted  to  the  attained,  actual  self.  This  is  selfish- 
ness ;  and  this,  in  a  progressive  personality,  is  violation 
of  his  being,  the  essence  of  sin.  Thus  the  normally  in- 
nocent susceptibility  to  lower  motives  is  made  an  object 
of  supreme  devotion,  is  excessively  exercised  and  grati- 
fied, and  thereby  rendered  overgrown,  morbid,  and 
vicious.  It  becomes  the  lap  of  Delilah  in  which  personal 
self-determination,  the  giant,  dallies  until,  shorn  of  de- 
votion to  the  perfect,  he  is  bound  by  degrading  limita- 
tions. The  susceptibilities  to  higher  motives  are 
unawakened,  or,  if  awakened  in  any  degree,  they  are 


xg8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

rejected,  violated,  and  ultimately  abolished.  Thus  the 
good  elements  in  progressive  being  are  disordered,  the 
true  relations  to  other  persons  and  to  divine  love  are 
perverted,  and  the  right  adjustment  of  life  is  lost. 

In  a  word  :  Self-love  in  progressive  self-determination, 
seeking  the  realization  of  an  ideal  self,  is  right  and  pure. 
But  it  may  become  perverted  into  devotion  to  an  ac- 
tually attained,  but  imperfect  self.  This  is  depraved 
devotement,  or  a  depraved,  unholy  self-love,  which  ( i ) 
renders  the  actual,  lower,  or  imperfect  self  morbid  by 
exaggerated  importance  and  the  gratification,  exercise, 
and  development  of  the  lower  means  of  self-determina- 
tion ;  making  them  the  end,  or  object,  of  that  self-deter- 
mination. (2)  It  thus  perverts  these  means  from  their 
rightful  use  as  conditions  upon  which  to  develop  higher 
conditions  to  a  higher  self-determination.  This  is  to 
say,  perverted  self-love  corrupts  the  actual  self;  and 
disorders  the  rightful  relations  of  self  toward  God  and 
the  world.  This  is  the  genesis  of  evil  in  a  person,  or  a 
world,  originally  good. 

Thus  self-love  is  the  pivotal  fact  upon  which  personal 
harmony  is  adjusted,  for  the  highest  good ;  and  the 
perversion  of  this  pivotal  fact,  from  devotion  to  self- 
perfection  to  devotion  to  actual  self  is  the  genesis  of 
evil. 

This  perverted  self-love  is  selfishness.  Sin  and  self- 
ishness are  different  names  for  the  act  of  rejecting 
the  ideal  self  which  I  ought  to  become  and  substitut- 
ing the  actual  self  which  I  am,  as  the  object  of  self- 
devotion.  It  is  the  apotheosis  of  self,  the  "  covetous- 
ness  which  is  idolatry."  Self  usurps  the  throne  of  God 
in  the  soul.  Conscience,  the  consciousness  of  the 
authority  of  the  perfect,  condemns  this  action  by  im- 


THE  GENESIS  OF  EVIL. 


189 


posing  the  consciousness  of  self-degradation.  It  in- 
volves the  consciousness  of  offence  toward  all  to  whom 
I  stand  related ;  and  consequent  guilt,  which  is  the 
complement  of  offence.  It  is,  therefore,  the  cardinal 
violation  of  being  and  all  the  relationship  of  being. 
The  disrupting  of  true  adjustment,  it  is  the  introduc- 
tion of  strife,  the  antagonist  of  all  good  by  its  dis- 
placement with  eviL  It  is  radical  contempt  for  the 
actual  perfection  of  God  and  its  moral  authority ;  and 
hence,  the  enemy  of  holiness  and  the  corruption  of 
being.  Selfishness,  sin,  is  the  grand  disturbance  to  the 
evolution  of  love,  and  therefore  presents  the  essential 
"  problem  of  evil." 


I90  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   SOLUTION    OF   EVIL. 
I  beseech  thee,  show  me  thy  glory.  —  Moses. 

"  The  problem  of  evil,"  in  its  second  phase,  is  the 
question,  How  does  love  in  its  evolution  attain  the 
perfect  determination  of  altruism,  —  perfect  benevolence 
notwithstanding  evil?  or,  What  course  must  the  evolu- 
tion of  love  be  thought  to  take  in  view  of  the  rise  of 
either  error  or  selfishness? 

What  has  gone  before  exhibits  the  divine  being  as 
perfect,  the  human  being  as  progressive,  and  that  love 
is  the  nature  of  the  action  which  determines  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  one  and  the  perfect  progressiveness  of  the 
other.  Divine  love  determines  the  perfect  being,  and 
conditions  the  self-determination  of  progressive  beings. 
While  human  love  upon  these  conditions  determines 
progressive  human  being,  progressing  toward  an  ideal, 
dependent  personality  which,  when  realized,  is  the  high- 
est type  of  conditioned  being,  —  perfect  dependent 
personality. 

Evil  in  general  is  the  practical  obstruction  or  antag- 
onism to  good.  It  results  either  from  error  in  carrying 
out  devotion  to  the  ideal,  or  from  intentional  lapse  from 
that  devotement.  In  the  former  case  it  exists  in  the 
person  as  error  or  mistake,  and  objectively  as  trespass 
and  misfortune.  In  the  latter  case  it  is  a  rejection 
of  love  and  a  substituting  of  selfishness  as  the  mode  of 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  InI 

self-love.  This,  subjectively,  is  infidelity  to  ideal  being, 
and  rebellion  against  the  sacred  authority  of  the  perfect. 
Objectively,  it  is  the  disharmony,  abuse,  and  debase- 
ment of  all  the  conditions  to  which  it  is  related.  This 
mode  of  evil  will  be  considered  later. 

It  is  clear  that  evil  is  the  defeat,  for  the  time  being  at 
least,  of  possible  good,  in  varying  degree,  at  any  point 
in  the  career  of  any  person  or  persons.  Evil  of  either 
form  mars,  temporarily  at  least,  the  otherwise  harmoni- 
ous universe,  and  retards  the  development  of  the  highest 
possible  good. 

Error  must  beset  a  person  or  a  race  whose  exercise 
of  self-love  arises  at  the  lowest  stage  of  intelligence  and 
power  at  which  it  is  possible.  This,  indeed,  to  such  a 
degree  as  to  defeat  the  benevolence  of  the  Creator,  but 
for  two  implied  considerations.  These  are,  first,  the  fact 
that  error  does  not  imply  a  lapse  or  break  in  the  love 
of  the  creature  for  his  Creator,  or  in  the  devotement  of 
self-love  to  his  own  highest  ideal.  The  harmony  of  in- 
teraction with  the  conditioning  action  of  divine  love  is 
unbroken.  Error  is  a  matter  of  misjudgment  or  unskil- 
fulness,  but  has  no  place  in  the  inner  intention  of  love, 
and  does  not  necessarily  induce  selfishness.  Hence 
simple  error  is  action  in  detail  in  the  preliminary  and 
supplementary  means  of  a  true  intention.  But  it  may 
clash  with  one's  environment  of  divine  or  human  action 
and  interests.  For  example,  a  most  loving  man,  devoted 
to  God  and  his  fellow-beings  and  striving  to  be  his  best 
self  for  God  and  man,  may,  through  error  of  judgment, 
practise  that  which  injures  his  own  health  and  that  of 
his  neighbors.  Yet  in  all  this,  his  personal  devotement 
to  universal  good  is  the  same,  and  his  spirit  is  morally 
pure  and  benevolent. 


jq2  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

This  fact  is  the  foundation  for  the  second  relieving 
consideration,  —  namely,  the  evil  result  of  his  misguided 
action  educates  him  to  a  correct  judgment ;  and  his 
undisturbed  moral  harmony  with  love  prompts  him  to 
correct  his  practice.  Thus  mere  error  conditioned  by 
love  is  corrective  in  its  tendency.  It  affords  also  the 
conditions  for  a  more  exalted  exercise  of  love  in  benefi- 
cent reparation  toward  his  injured  neighbors,  and  in  a 
nicer  future  interaction  with  the  divine  activities  in  his 
own  nature  and  environment. 

Moreover,  a  progressive  development  which  gradually 
evolves  moral  freedom  at  the  earliest  possible  stages  of 
intelligence  and  power,  though  it  must  be  most  fruitful 
of  error,  nevertheless  not  only  results  in  the  least  evil  pos- 
sible and  is  corrective  in  its  tendency,  but  develops  the 
greatest  possible  degree  of  innocent  experience  of  good 
and  ill.  Error  is  thus  made  to  strengthen  the  person 
against  temptation  to  intentional  evil.  The  highest 
consciousness  of  the  excellence  of  right  and  of  the 
obnoxious  character  of  wrong,  in  proportion  to  the  harm 
sustained,  is  thus  acquired  by  finite  persons.  A  long 
term  of  innocent  error  may  so  educate  finite  persons  in 
the  goodness  of  right  and  the  harmfulness  of  wrong  as 
to  secure  them  forever  against  liability  to  intentional 
wrong. 

In  a  progressive  universe  error  is  made  by  benevolent 
conditions  to  have  a  mission,  but  sin  has  none.  Error, 
rendered  self-correcting  under  the  auspices  of  love,  is 
the  true  "bitter-sweet"  of  human  life,  and  is  able  to 
eliminate  the  bitter  and  perfect  the  sweet.  If,  in  the 
history  of  a  vicious  race,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
"there  is  a  force,  not  ourselves,  which  makes  for  right- 
eousness," how  much  more  could  the  same  force,  in  the 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  ^3 

history  of  a  race  which  may  ignorantly  err  yet  is  devoted 
to  truth  and  goodness,  maintain  essential  and  realize 
universal  harmony.  This  force  is  the  Creator's  love, 
which,  true  to  the  ideal,  posits  an  ever-present  basis  of 
correction,  recovery,  and  harmony  to  dependent  persons 
in  all  their  errors.  The  unbroken  reign  of  love  is  the 
element  of  perfection  in  a  progressive  universe.  This 
perfection  is  not  impaired  by  errors  of  detail.  These  do 
not  disturb  the  reign  of  love,  but  can  only  occasion  a 
change  in  the  line  of  its  development.  Hence  the  dis- 
turbance to  superficial  harmony  which  may  come  about 
through  innocent  error  is  not  an  essential  evil,  but  may 
become  a  good  in  progressive  being. 

But  there  is  a  class  of  error  which  may  arise  as  inci- 
dent to  intentional  wrong,  —  as  the  natural  result  of 
thinking  from  a  selfish  stand-point.  The  perversion  of 
self-love  to  selfishness  is  a  personal  misadjustment 
toward  one's  entire  relationship,  which  must  be  fruitful 
of  incalculable  error  and  consequent  evil.  For  example, 
that  least  malignant  form  of  selfishness  termed  egotism, 
or  exaggerated  self-esteem,  leads  the  person  who  is 
afflicted  with  it  into  endless  absurdities,  and  often  ex- 
ceedingly calamitous  results,  to  others  as  well  as  himself. 
To  plead  that  these  evils  were  the  result  of  mere  mistake 
will  not  excuse  him  in  the  judgment  of  his  injured  fel- 
low-men, but  they  hold  him  blameworthy  and  curse  his 
inordinate  self-esteem  which  betrayed  him  into  these 
harmful  blunders.  Thus,  but  on  a  much  larger  scale, 
inordinate  self-love  guiltily  augments  the  evil  of  the 
world  by  its  unintended  incoherencies  and  errors. 
Many  who  have  simply  intended  to  gratify  an  appetite 
for  stimulants  have  become  debauchees  or  murderers. 
The  informing  power  of  a  good  heart  and  the  misleading 

13 


I94  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

bias  of  a  bad  heart  are  such  prominent  forces  in  forming 
the  judgments  of  men  that  centuries  of  human  experi- 
ence have  stamped  them,  severally,  as  wisdom  and 
folly. 

This  class  of  error  is  that  which  arises  from  ignoring 
God  and  devotion  to  perfection  of  being  as  the  law  of 
universal  adjustment.  Some  of  the  ablest  minds  among 
men  have  perpetrated  the  most  gigantic  and  hurtful 
follies  through  selfishness.  The  effort  to  possess  the 
largest  possible  satisfaction  to  actual  self  is  illustrated  in 
the  follies  as  well  as  crimes  of  a  Macbeth  or  a  Napo- 
leon, as  in  the  fool  who  ignored  his  soul's  nobler  possi- 
bilities when  he  decided  to  "  pull  down  his  bams  and 
build  greater."  This  class  of  error  must  be  assigned  to 
selfishness,  and  can  only  be  disposed  of  along  with  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  moral  evil. 

The  Problem  of  Moral  Evil.  —  According  to  love,  all 
being  is  sacred.  The  ideal  which  is  self-conscious  in 
love  is  truth ;  enacted  truth  is  righteousness ;  intention 
to  enact  truth  is  holiness ;  and  the  practical  satisfaction 
of  love  is  the  good. 

Selfishness  practically  ignores  all  these  facts.  Ignoring 
the  perfect,  independent  reality  of  God,  it  rejects  the 
authority  of  the  perfect,  the  ground  of  moral  obligation, 
the  supreme  criterion  of  all  action  and  being.  Man, 
ignoring  self-progress  toward  self-perfection,  rejects  the 
authoritative  ideal  which  he  should  actualize,  and 
thereby  rejects  the  independent  perfection  which  main- 
tains the  authority  of  this  ideal.  He  thus  refuses  to  be 
the  best  he  might  be  for  himself,  for  God,  and  for  fellow- 
beings.  He  rejects  companionship  with  the  perfect  and 
thus  determines  himself  in  derogation  of  all  others.  In 
this  abuse  of  his  being  he  also  abuses  the  conditions  of 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  !9S 

his  being.  This  abuse  disturbs  the  order  of  the  world, 
and  corrupts  the  conditions  of  human  life  in  general. 
It  ignores  that  there  is  an  intrinsic  nature  or  indepen- 
dent reality  in  which  are  truth,  right,  holiness,  and 
good ;  ignores  that  there  is  anything  essentially  sacred. 
Hence  the  line  which  discriminates  good  and  evil  is  the 
question,  Is  love  perfect  action,  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
can  self-love,  as  the  first  right  of  being,  determine  for 
itself  greater  power  and  pleasure,  find  a  better  existence, 
a  higher  good  in  selfishness?  And  if  not,  has  it  aright 
nevertheless  to  choose  satisfaction  in  a  self-determination 
which  is  derogatory  to  others  ?  Hence  selfishness  is  the 
attempt  of  the  dependent  to  ignore  the  independent,  the 
effort  of  malevolence  to  disparage  benevolence,  which  it 
appropriates  and  perverts,  and  to  corrupt  the  conditions 
upon  which  others  must  determine  themselves. 

Thus  the  rise  of  selfishness,  moral  evil,  or  sin,  raises 
many  most  difficult  questions.  Whoever  was  the  first 
of  sinners  was  the  author  of  one  of  the  most  weighty 
problems  known  to  human  thought,  —  a  problem  upon  the 
theoretic  solution  of  which  depends  a  true  philosophy ; 
and  upon  the  practical  solution  of  which,  by  love,  de- 
pends the  success  of  the  personal  universe.  And  every 
sinner  revives  the  same  questions  within  his  own  rela- 
tions to  God  and  the  world.  Some  of  these  questions 
we  here  venture  to  state  :  — 

i.  Is  there  an  independent  reality? 

2.  Is  love  the  nature  of  independent  reality,  perfect 
action  ;   and  therefore  the  criterion  of  all  action  ? 

3.  Does  it  realize  absolutely  perfect  being  in  God; 
and  therefore  an  authoritative  criterion  for  all  being  ? 

4.  Is  love's  ideal,  as  self-conscious  in  God,  the  infinite 
ideal,  absolute  truth? 


I96  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

5.  Is  love,  the  nature  of  God,  intentionally  determined 
by  him,  and  therefore  holy? 

6.  Is  love-determined  being  capable  of  the  highest 
possible  good,  under  all  circumstances  ? 

7.  Is  a  God  whose  nature  is  love  the  best  God  that 
can  be? 

8.  Is  the  universe,  as  evolved  by  love,  the  best  that 
might  be,  capable  of  the  greatest  power  for  good  in  both 
quality  and  degree? 

9.  May  not  finite  persons  determine  a  higher  self-love, 
greater  good,  power,  and  pleasure  for  themselves  by 
selfishness  than  by  supreme  love  for  their  Creator 
and  equal  love  for  each  other,  and  to  that  extent  be 
independent? 

10.  Is  love  the  only  kind  of  action  which  determines 
the  highest  good  in  any  class  of  conditions  ;  or  may  we 
not  be  satisfied,  if  we  choose,  with  a  life  which  is  in- 
different to  God  and  may  corrupt  the  conditions  of 
fellow-beings  ;  may  we  not  sin  and  prosper? 

These  questions  suggest  how  all-comprehending  is  the 
issue  between  a  pure  self-love,  which  is  supreme  devo- 
tion to  perfection  of  being,  and  selfishness,  which  is 
supreme  devotion  to  actual,  but  imperfect  being.  But 
they  all  centre  in  this  :  Is  love  perfect  action,  the  nature 
of  the  absolute  or  independent  reality?  Or  is  it  but 
an  arbitrary  determination  which  God  chooses  as  the 
structure  of  things,  which  he  upholds  by  mere  power 
and  thereby  imposes  hardship  upon  all  which  does  not 
harmonize  with  this  convention  ?  If  it  is  the  latter,  then 
the  pursuit  of  truth,  holiness,  and  good,  on  the  part  of 
men,  is  nothing  better  than  a  wise  utilitarianism ;  and 
selfishness  is  nothing  worse  than  a  mistake,  or  a  wrong 
self-determination  which  one  may  deliberately  choose 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  jgy 

without  blame,  provided  he  accepts  its  ill  results.  But 
if  it  is  the  former,  the  nature  of  perfect  action,  then 
truth,  holiness,  and  real  good  are  intrinsic  qualities  of 
being,  have  an  absolute  basis  which  is  independent  of 
all  relationship,  structure,  or  conventionality.  Man's 
pursuit  of  them  is  a  matter  of  progressive  companion- 
ship, with  God  as  independent,  infinite  ;  and  man's  rejec- 
tion of  them  is  a  matter  of  essential  self-degradation,  and 
a  guilty  violation  of  the  rights  of  self-love  in  others. 

Therefore  it  appears  that  the  solution  of  evil  must  be 
a  question  of  permanence,  or  persistence,  —  the  persist- 
ence of  a  personal  universe.  And  this  persistence  must 
survive  all  susceptibility  to  disharmony  and  disintegra- 
tion. If  a  personal  being  can  persist  indefinitely,  yet 
susceptible  to  evil,  it  follows  that  a  perfect  finite  per- 
sonality or  universe  can  never  be  attained.  Hence  the 
evolution  of  a  perfect  universe  by  love  implies  that  its 
grand  requisite  is  to  cancel  self-love's  natural  suscep- 
tibility to  evil  and  eliminate  all  selfishness. 

The  issue  which  evil  presents  is,  then,  one  of  conflict, 
antagonism  between  love  and  selfishness.  The  original 
sin  is  the  displacement  of  love  by  selfishness,  as  the 
nature  of  individual  self-determination.  Hence  what 
has  been  termed  "  the  conflict  of  good  and  evil "  is 
really  the  conflict  of  love  and  selfishness.  It  is  a  con- 
test for  the  supreme  determination  of  personal  being. 
All  questions  which  arise  between  good  and  evil,  the 
true  and  the  false,  right  and  wrong,  are  essentially  in- 
volved in  this.  Upon  the  solution  of  this  issue  between 
love  and  selfishness  depends  the  perfecting  of  the  per- 
sonal universe.  Hence  the  evolution  of  love  implies 
that  this  question  must  be  met  and  settled.  How  shall 
it  be  accomplished  ? 


I98  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

How  does  the  evolution  of  love  condition  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  personal  universe,  notwithstanding  the  rise 
of  moral  evil?  The  answer  to  this  question  is  implied 
in  former  chapters.  What  is  needed  now  is  to  render 
more  explicit  here  what  is  implicit  there,  touching  this 
question.  Hence,  a  considerable  repetition  of  what  has 
been  stated  may  appear  in  this  chapter,  though  the 
object  is  different. 

Motivity,  conditioning  self-determination,  can  and 
must  afford  the  solution  of  this  question.  Elsewhere  we 
have  defined  motivity  as  comprehending  both  subjective 
susceptibility  and  objective  influence,  inciting  to  a  choice 
of  self-determining  action.  Hence  motivity  is  the  in- 
fluence which  their  conditions  afford  to  conditioned 
persons,  and  with  reference  to  which  they  may  freely 
act,  adopting  or  rejecting  them  as  the  ground  of  their 
intentions.  Thus  motivity  continually  recognizes  the 
moral  freedom,  or  self-determination  of  conditioned 
persons.  To  render  finite  persons  eventually  unsuscep- 
tible to  selfishness,  and  finally  settle  all  the  beguiling 
questions  which  sin  has  raised,  and  also  to  settle  them 
by  sin's  total  loss  of  objective  motivity  through  its  self- 
demonstrated  failure  and  turpitude,  and  by  the  self- 
demonstrated  persistence  and  excellence  of  love,  is  the 
grand  end  to  be  attained. 

We  may  therefore  expect  the  evolution  of  love  to 
take  a  course  that  will  condition  these  two  objects, 
namely :  to  cancel  all  susceptibility  to  selfishness,  and 
neutralize  all  objective  motivity  to  evil.  We  will  con- 
sider them  under  the  following  heads  :  — 

I.  Subjective  motivity ;  or,  in  other  words,  inner 
susceptibility. 

II.  Objective  motivity;  or  outer  incentive. 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  igg 

I.  The  question  plainly  recognizes  that  two  things  have 
to  be  accomplished,  namely :  the  perfection  of  human 
character,  and,  secondly,  the  abolition  of  evil.  The 
question  also  implies  that  the  evolution  of  love  cannot 
solve  but  can  only  condition  the  solution  of  moral  evil. 
Since  the  question  at  issue  is  one  of  personal  determi- 
nation, it  leaves  to  the  evolution  of  divine  love  to  deter- 
mine nothing  other  than  the  conditions  upon  which 
dependent  persons  may  determine  the  perfection  of 
their  being  and  the  abolition  of  all  evil.  As  their  self- 
determination  is  the  determining  factor  for  the  universe 
it  must  be  held  inviolate  in  this  solution. 

Compulsory  power  cannot  solve  this  question.  It 
may  be  asked :  Should  not  the  Creator  destroy  each 
person  who  perverts  his  nature,  by  withdrawing  at 
least  his  supporting  power,  and  thus  permit  that  person 
to  lapse  from  being?  Some,  with  amazing  lack  of 
thought,  ask  :  Why  did  not  God  destroy  the  first  sinner, 
and  indeed  every  sinner,  and  thus  prevent  the  con- 
tinuance and  accumulation  of  sin  and  sorrow  ?  A  mo- 
ment's reflection  should  suffice  to  show  that  such 
a  procedure  could  never  answer,  to  finite  minds,  the 
questions  originated  by  sin,  or  abolish  the  suscepti- 
bility of  self-love  to  selfishness.  Indeed  it  would  render 
it  impossible  ever  to  accomplish  these  cardinal  ends. 
God  would  appear  as  maintaining  his  independence  by 
sheer  force ;  hence  force  must  be  the  highest  manifes- 
tation of  his  nature,  must  be  the  ground  of  moral  obli- 
gation ;  and  how  low  such  morality  would  be,  main- 
tained by  force  as  chief  incentive,  is  readily  seen. 
Their  harmony,  personal  freedom,  and  good  must  then 
be  limited  to  the  degree  to  which  they  might  be  secured 
by  obedience  under  duress  of  abject  fear.     Thus  God 


200  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

must  appear  to  conditioned  persons  as  but  a  dynamic 
independent  maintaining  himself  by  mere  might,  never 
evincing  moral  perfection  or  intrinsic  excellence  of 
character. 

Since  no  motive  higher  than  fear  of  force  could  then 
appeal  to  finite  persons,  they  would  be  incapable  of 
higher  than  enforced  obedience,  and  thus  the  determi- 
nation of  a  moral  universe  would  be  at  an  end.  More- 
over, since  God  had  not  ventured  to  meet  the  question 
that  selfishness  may  be  more  excellent  than  love,  with 
any  other  solution  than  that  of  interposed  strength,  this 
solution  would  afford  consolation  and  even  prestige  to 
the  condemned ;  would  continue  to  beset  the  obedient, 
encourage  the  wicked,  and  threaten  the  disintegration 
of  the  personal  universe ;  would  haunt  the  throne  of 
God  evermore. 

"  Who  overcomes 
By  force,  hath  overcome  but  half  his  foe." 

Not  upon  conditions  of  justice ;  limiting  the  evolu- 
tion of  love  to  the  demands  of  justice.  To  secure  that 
the  existence  of  finite  persons  may  be  simply  better 
than  non-existence  is  merely  just ;  that  is  to  say,  this 
much  is  requisite  to  justify  the  Creator  in  his  having 
chosen  to  create  dependent  beings.  But  this  is  not 
the  object  of  love's  evolution,  cannot  achieve  a  perfect 
universe,  is  not  a  determination  of  the  degree  of  good 
which  can  be  attained  by  only  persons  of  the  highest 
qualities,  is  not  a  complete  realization  of  the  divine 
benevolence. 

Just  conditions  imply,  of  course,  the  immediate 
elimination  of  sin,  whether  by  death  or  other  punish- 
ment of  the  sinner.     This  must  be  for  the  reason  that 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  20I 

even  justice  must  maintain  the  conditions  to  good,  and 
eliminate  incitements  to  evil.  But  such  conditions 
cannot  be  maintained  if  any  person  or  number  of  per- 
sons may  practise  disharmony  and  yet  be  continued  in 
association  with  the  obedient,  and  enjoy,  as  well  as  abuse, 
their  benign  conditions.  The  example  of  this  impunity 
would  constantly  tempt  others  to  sin.  The  fact  as  well 
as  the  appearance  of  justice  would  be  wholly  lost. 
Their  evil  action  and  influence  would  inflict  injury 
upon  innocent  individuals  and  must  corrupt  society  in 
general.  Thus  the  conditions  to  good  must  be  im- 
paired, incitement  to  evil  enhanced,  and  the  least  of 
evil  result  not  secured.  This  course  of  things  must 
corrupt  the  entire  race  and  defeat  all  good.  Justice 
has  no  alternative  but  to  maintain  a  process  of  casting 
out  the  factors  of  evil  as  they  arise.  It  is  a  necessary 
implication  that  dependent  persons,  conditioned  in 
holiness  and  benevolence  only  to  the  extent  of  justice, 
must  be  crushed  immediately  upon  their  practising  or 
intending  evil. 

It  is  true,  harmony  can  thereby  be  assured;  the 
obedient  would  have  no  motive  but  to  continue  obedi- 
ent. Evil  would  be  suppressed,  the  creative  and 
supportive  action  of  God  would  be  preserved  from  per- 
version or  abuse,  the  creation  would  stand  justified,  and 
the  Creator's  authority  undisturbed.  But  this  would  be 
a  universe  of  fear.  Might  would  be  necessary  to  sus- 
tain right.  Mere  strength  would  be  the  ground  of  obedi- 
ence, the  basis  of  motives.  It  cannot  inspire  motives 
of  a  higher  order  than  dread.  Universal  selfishness 
would  be  the  highest  type  of  character.  This  limited 
evolution  of  love  cannot  be  perfectly  holy,  for  the 
reason   that  it   does   not   realize   the   ideal   person    or 


202  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

universe ;  nor  can  it  be  perfect  benevolence  for  the 
reason  that  it  fails  to  determine  complete  altruistic 
benevolence. 

If  this  just  conditioning  of  dependent  persons  were 
the  limit  of  love's  evolution,  then  either  of  two  results 
must  follow :  the  rise  of  evil  by  error  or  sin  must 
corrupt  the  universe  and  defeat  love,  or  else  the  wrong- 
doer must  be  immediately  eliminated,  crushed  out, 
from  its  conditioning  forces.  In  either  case  the  question 
of  the  possible  excellence  of  selfishness  is  not  met,  but 
remains  installed  as  a  powerful  enterprise  and  has  a 
prestige  which  discredits  the  moral  authority  of  truth. 
The  continuance  and  accumulation  of  sin  must  degrade 
the  conditions  which  favor  good,  and  enhance  the  con- 
ditions which  favor  evil,  resulting  in  the  entire  displace- 
ment of  the  former  by  the  latter.  In  a  word,  there  can 
be  no  means  of  preventing  the  disintegration  and  defeat 
of  a  personal  universe  upon  conditions  of  justice,  except 
by  a  process  of  casting  out  the  factors  of  selfishness  as 
they  arise. 

That  the  Creator  has  an  arbitrary  right  to  create 
finite  beings  in  conditions  of  justice,  where  their  de- 
fection would  be  their  disaster  and  where  fear  of 
destruction  would  be  the  highest  incentive  to  obedience, 
is  not  disputed  here.  There  are,  for  aught  we  know, 
such  orders  of  being,  "  servants  that  do  his  will,"  "  living 
creatures "  that  confess  his  power,  "  angels  that  kept 
not  their  first  estate,"  but,  though  there  are  such  beings 
they  are  not  the  highest  representatives  of  a  personal 
universe.  They  do  not  know  the  highest  conditions 
afforded  by  divine  benevolence.  They  may  know  his 
righteousness,  realize  his  justice,  but  such  beings,  con- 
fined  to  such  conditions,   cannot   determine   an    ideal 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2Q^ 

universe.  They  are  not  of  the  highest  order  of  finite 
personality,  not  exponents  of  perfect  altruism,  not 
capable  of  the  highest  conditionable  good. 

They  are  beings  whose  functions  may  form  conditions 
to  higher  orders  of  beings,  as  the  vegetables  and  animals 
of  this  planet  form  a  portion  of  the  conditions  to  man's 
being  and  development.  By  observation  of  higher 
motives  as  exemplified  in  the  higher  conditions  of  other 
orders  of  being  they  may  learn  to  share  the  motives  of 
those  higher  beings,  and  so  attain  to  the  highest  personal 
character.  The  conditions  of  human  salvation,  which, 
perhaps,  "  these  angels  desire  to  look  into,"  may  inspire 
in  them  similar  motives  to  those  which  condition  man's 
rise  from  a  position  "  a  little  lower  than  the  angels  "  to 
one  above  them,  "  crowned  with  glory  and  honor." 
And  such  orders  may  be  needed  to  condition  the 
perfection  of  others  and  of  the  universe  as  a  whole. 
But  on  the  basis  of  justice  alone  the  highest  personality 
cannot  be  attained.  On  justice  alone  a  perfect  moral 
universe  cannot  be  thought.  Even  if  persons  were 
created  at  the  highest  point  of  finite  intelligence  and 
power  possible,  they  would  nevertheless  have  no 
experience  of  evil,  and  would  yet  be  free  to  sin.  Of  the 
infinite  excellence  of  love  they  might,  indeed,  have  the 
widest  faith  incident  to  the  highest  finite  intuition,  but 
the  susceptibility  of  their  self-love  to  choose  their  good 
in  a  selfish  use  of  their  magnificent  powers  would  still  be 
open  before  them.  Hence,  as  stated  more  at  length  in 
the  chapter  "  Creation,"  their  security  in  righteousness  is 
by  no  means  assured.  And  in  the  event  that  they  choose 
this  selfish  course,  their  power  for  evil  would  be  the  great- 
est possible,  and  the  maximum  of  ill  result  must  follow. 
And  since  their  sinning  would  transpire  in  the  midst  of 


204  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

the  highest  finite  intelligence  and  motivity,  their  over- 
throw must  be  immediate  and  final.  Thus,  again,  the 
supreme  motive  to  obedience  would  be  selfish  fear. 

Incapable  of  realizing  its  ideal  on  conditions  of 
justice,  love  pushes  its  evolution  into  higher  and  wider 
modes  of  benevolence.  The  rights  of  justice  all  must 
admit.  They  can  condition  an  evolution  of  energy,  but 
cannot  adequately  condition  an  evolution  of  love  ;  can- 
not afford  scope  within  which  the  divine  choice  to 
determine  perfect  unselfishness,  perfect  altruism,  can  be 
realized.  The  highest  good  possible  to  conditioned 
being  cannot  be  achieved,  because  the  highest  self- 
determination  possible  to  dependent  persons,  cannot  be 
attained  while  limited  to  motives  of  hope  and  fear. 
Justice  has  its  place,  as  indicating  the  rights  of  depen- 
dent and  independent  beings.  It  marks  the  level  below 
which  a  God  of  love  cannot  create  or  condition  sentient 
beings,  and  above  which  they  have  no  claims  upon 
him.  They  have  no  claim  upon  him  for  more  than  is 
just,  but  love,  in  seeking  to  realize  its  ideal  universe, 
bestows  upon  them  a  degree  of  good  far  greater  than 
justice  could  provide.  Dependent  persons  may  demand 
justice,  but  not  grace  of  the  independent.  They  cannot 
demand,  but  the  Creator  can  bestow  gracious  conditions 
far  above  what  justice  requires ;  and  this  he  does  in 
evolving  the  ideal  universe.  Grace  does  not  violate 
justice,  but  transcends  it.  Justice  marks  the  lowest 
plane,  mercy  the  highest,  upon  which  a  universe  may  be 
projected.  Upon  the  plane  of  grace  God  chooses  to 
bestow  the  good  which  he  realizes  there  is  in  being,  the 
good  which  love  is  able  to  condition  in  a  universe  of 
dependent  persons  who  are  morally  free.  The  evolution 
of  love  is  essentially  gracious,  merciful. 


THE   SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  205 

Further :  In  the  question  of  love's  perfection  it  is 
clearly  its  altruistic  freedom  which  is  put  to  trial,  —  not 
as  to  the  capability  of  God's  perfect  egoism  to  afford 
perfect  altruism,  but  as  to  the  susceptibility  of  free,  finite 
persons  to  afford  it  scope  for  perfect  determination.  If 
God  visits  sinners  with  forceful  compulsion  to  obedience 
he  confesses  inability  to  condition  full,  practical  deter- 
mination to  altruistic  benevolence,  and  thereby  confesses 
the  imperfection  of  his  love-determined  creation ;  and 
this  is  to  confess  the  imperfection  of  his  nature,  love. 
Hence  it  is  that  love  cannot  resort  to  force  to  disclose 
the  intrinsic  authority  of  moral  obligation.  God  may 
have  the  arbitrary  right  to  destroy  the  rebellious  directly 
upon  their  sinful  act,  but  the  evolution  of  love  is  thereby 
estopped.  Love,  in  sheer  self-sufficiency,  as  indepen- 
dent self-determination,  must  meet  rebellion  with  further 
benevolent  conditions  if  it  would  condition  the  deter- 
mination of  its  perfect  altruistic  freedom.  Let  it  be 
steadily  held  in  our  thought  that  an  evolution  which 
determines  a  perfect  altruism  is  one  which  gives  full 
development  to  the  motive  of  creation,  namely,  benev- 
olence, in  its  proposed  purpose,  namely,  the  highest 
good  of  being.  To  attain  this  purpose,  it  is  self-evident 
that  benevolence  must  have  all  the  scope  of  infinite 
altruistic  freedom.  With  equal  tenacity  let  it  be  remem- 
bered that  this  purpose  is  the  same  as  a  determination 
of  a  perfect  objective  ideal ;  and  that  in  the  love  which 
seeks  to  realize  this  ideal  is  the  moral  authority,  or 
ground  of  moral  obligation,  in  all  the  objective  action 
of  the  Creator  and  to  all  finite  being.  Holiness  can  be 
thought  only  of  action  that  is  in  accord  with  ideal  per- 
fection ;  and  ideal  perfection  alone  can  fill  out  the 
thought  of  the  highest  good  of  being.     Hence  benev- 


2o6  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

olence  as  the  motive  to  the  realization  of  the  highest 
good  can  only  be  thought  as  a  motive  prompted  by 
holiness.  God  is  benevolent  as  he  is  holy.  He  is  holy 
and  benevolent  because  his  nature  is  love.  Therefore 
the  benevolent  action  of  God  must  always  be  holy  action. 
Holiness  is,  therefore,  the  law  unto  benevolence,  as  the 
ideal  is  the  law  unto  the  practical.  It  is  clear,  then, 
that  the  achievement  of  highest  good  to  finite  persons 
has  for  its  motive  a  holy  benevolence.  As  benevolence, 
therefore,  is  a  motive  born  of  that  perfect  egoism  which 
realizes  absolute  holiness  in  God's  perfect  self-determina- 
tion, this  benevolence,  as  motive  to  the  determination 
of  an  objective  universe,  must  be  holy  in  all  universal 
determination.  Divine  holiness  that  is  not  benevolent, 
divine  benevolence  that  is  not  holy  cannot  be  thought. 

But  when  holy  benevolence  is  misappropriated  and 
abused,  made  the  occasion  and  interacting  abettor  of 
sin  by  the  persons  to  whom  it  has  given  existence,  the 
question  is,  what  must  be  the  course  of  divine  action 
that  it  may  realize  its  holy  benevolence  in  true  fidelity 
to  its  ideal  of  a  perfect  universe?  The  ideal  of  being 
which  is  implicit  in  love's  perfect  action,  whether  that 
action  be  the  self-determination  of  God  or  his  determina- 
tion of  the  universe,  must  abide  as  the  moral  imperative 
in  both  egoism  and  altruism.  Any  action  of  God  which 
might  impair  that  moral  authority  would  concede  the 
failure  of  love  and  limit  its  altruistic  freedom.  Hence 
the  thought  of  such  action  cannot  be  entertained.  It  is 
perfectly  clear  that  holiness,  as  the  law  of  action  which 
develops  benevolence,  establishes  the  rights  of  benevo- 
lence ;  and  that  benevolence  is  not  a  course  of  action 
which  has  no  rights  except  to  submit  to  abuse.  It  is 
equally  clear  that  the  benevolent  action  of  God  might 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2Qj 

rightfully  cease  at  any  and  every  point  where  it  is  abused 
by  finite  persons  ;  might,  to  conserve  moral  purity,  with- 
draw its  positing  and  interacting  power  at  the  first 
attempt  of  any  dependent  person  toward  selfish  deter- 
mination. This  would  be,  in  legal  terms,  the  limit  of 
justice.  But  it  would  also  be  the  failure  of  a  moral  uni- 
verse, the  failure  of  altruistic  freedom,  the  failure  of  love 
as  perfect  action,  because  it  is  a  benevolence  that  can 
survive  abuse  only  by  force,  and  inspire  reciprocity  only 
by  fear.  If  the  divine  ideal  of  a  universe  is  thus  to  be 
limited  by  arbitrary  right,  and  thus  requires  the  support 
of  force,  it  is  clearly  not  the  realization  of  ideal  con- 
ditioned personality ;  it  is  not  and  cannot  become  a 
perfect  universe. 

The  evolution  of  love  has  in  it  no  place  for  coerced 
reciprocation.  All  degradation  of  being  and  all  suffer- 
ing which  comes  by  degradation  of  being  must  be 
inflicted  by  persons  other  than  God.  The  good  of  be- 
ing, the  good  of  every  being,  is  the  purpose  of  creation. 
From  the  bosom  of  love  all  creative  forces  steadily  pour 
their  energies  in  the  direction  of  that  purpose.  Only  by 
man's  false  self-adjustment,  self-perversion,  can  his  real 
degradation  be  induced  and  its  sorrows  experienced. 
Destruction  of  being  can  be  thought  to  come  to  persons 
only  by  self-infliction.  If  persons  in  a  love-created  uni- 
verse become  incapable  of  recovery  it  can  only  be  self- 
induced.  The  railroad  affords  the  best  facility  by  which 
to  travel  over  long  distances,  but  if  one  adjusts  himself 
falsely  to  that  road  by  standing  or  walking  before  the 
engine  and  disputing  the  right  to  the  road,  this  admirable 
railroad  action  will  override  and  crush  him.  But,  if  he 
board  the  train  the  same  harmonious  and  persistent 
action  which  would  have  crushed  him,  in  his  false  ad- 


2o8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

justment  to  it,  will  prove  the  greatest  facility  to  his 
journey. 

No  !  It  is  evident  from  the  nature  of  this  problem, 
from  the  nature  of  dependent  persons,  from  the  nature 
of  God,  that  force  cannot  solve  the  problem  of  evil. 
Again,  how  may  it  be  solved? 

Grace  alone  can  condition  the  ideal  universe.  That 
is  to  say  that  the  ideal  which  imperatively  demands 
realization  in  love's  evolution  is  a  universe  of  persons 
who  shall  attain  to  the  highest  self-determination,  or  free- 
dom, possible  to  dependent  beings ;  that  they  shall 
achieve  this  in  harmony  with  divine  love,  and  shall 
be  able  to  attain  security  from  danger  of  discord  or 
defection ;  and  that  the  practical  realization  of  this  ideal 
is  alone  capable  of  the  highest  conditionable  good, 
which  is  the  benevolent  purpose  of  love's  evolution. 
Further,  that  is  to  say  that  this  security  of  free  persons 
can  be  achieved  only  by  neutralizing  all  motive  to  evil, 
and  affording  the  highest  incitement  and  susceptibility 
to  good.  And  all  this  is  to  say  that  the  gracious  evolu- 
tion of  love,  an  evolution  beyond  the  limits  of  justice, 
conditions  not  only  the  rise,  but  the  remedy  of  evil. 

Grace  is  a  necessity  in  the  realization  of  a  dependent 
moral  universe.  This  is  not  to  say  that  God  is  under 
necessity  to  create  a  universe,  but  having  chosen  to 
create  he  imposes  upon  himself  certain  necessary  con- 
ditions ;  and  one  of  these  is  mercy,  a  degree  of  benevo- 
lence beyond  the  boundary  of  arbitrary  right.  It  is  that 
degree  of  benevolence  which  conditions  the  maintenance 
of  dependent  persons,  though  such  persons  are  out  of 
harmony  with  love  by  either  error  or  intention. 

Since  progressive  development  is  the  essential  mode  of 
attaining   ideal  conditioned  being  and  its  lower  stages 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  209 

are  most  liable  to  error,  it  is  evident  that  grace  is  a 
necessity  to  the  evolution  of  love. 

Sin,  the  intentional  perversion  of  self  love  into  selfish- 
ness, arbitrary  right  would  demand  should  be  estopped 
by  the  withdrawal  of  creative,  or  positing  power  from 
the  sinner  ;  thus  permitting  him  to  perish.  But  we  have 
seen  that  this  intervention  of  force,  by  whatever  mode, 
cannot  meet  the  questions  which  sin  raises,  and  the 
moral  necessities  it  imposes.  Such  action  would  end 
an  evolution  of  love,  extinguish  a  moral  universe  except 
in  the  bare  form  of  choosing  between  fear  and  penalty 
and  would  utterly  cancel  the  moral  sacredness  of  truth. 
Benevolent  altruism,  the  motive  to  creation,  would  be 
defeated.  The  problem  of  the  excellence  or  non- 
excellence  of  love  and  selfishness  must  be  worked  out 
upon  their  merits  as  rival  methods  of  self-determination. 
Hence,  grace  is  a  necessity  as  affording  scope  in  which 
this  solution  may  appear. 

Thus  a  successful  evolution  of  love  must  be  able  to 
condition  the  moral  recuperation  of  sinners ;  must  de- 
monstrate love's  ability  to  outlive  all  possible  disaster  in 
attaining  a  perfect  universe,  and  thus  yield  to  all  finite 
persons  the  consciousness  of  its  perfection  in  all  it  im- 
plies. Hence,  gracious  forbearance  is  a  necessary  con- 
dition to  the  evolution  of  love.  Mercy,  though  not  a 
necessity  to  divine  personal  perfection,  is  a  necessity  to 
a  successful  moral  universe  ;  a  necessity  in  realizing  the 
highest  objective  good  proposed  by  infinite  benevolence. 
The  infinite  pathos  of  God's  mercy  has  its  germ  in  his 
benevolence  as  the  primary  motive  to  creation.  It  is 
not  an  afterthought ;  it  is  lk  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  Since  only  the  gracious  benevolence  of  divine 
love  affords  ample  scope  in  which  to  condition  motivity 
14 


2io  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

to  the  ultimate  solution  of  evil  we  come  to  consider 
more  explicitly :  What  are  the  implied  processes  or 
forms  in  which  love  affords  complete  motivity  to  the 
solution  of  evil? 

Two  words  comprehend  the  answer  to  this  question  : 
Faith,  and  Persistence.  By  affording  the  conditions 
which  will  lead  to  faith  the  evolution  of  love  furnishes 
to  finite  persons  the  form  of  motivity  by  which  to  cancel 
self-love's  susceptibility  to  selfishness.  Faith  is  man's 
self-determined  condition  upon  which  his  love,  his  devo- 
tion to  an  ideal  life,  arises  and  determines  his  perfection. 
Thus  love  gains  scope  within  which  to  inspire  reciprocal 
love  in  man,  and  to  demonstrate  its  merit. 

The  gracious  benevolence  of  divine  love,  which  af- 
fords the  conditions  of  faith,  thereby  gives  scope  also 
to  selfishness  in  which  to  demonstrate  itself,  to  modify 
natural  conditions  to  suit  its  own  ends,  and  to  appropri- 
ate the  lenience  of  grace  in  making  full  determination 
of  its  results,  —  a  determination  more  favorable  and  im- 
posing than  it  could  make  but  for  the  gracious  forbear- 
ance and  kindly  conditions  which  divine  love  affords  to 
sinners. 

By  thus  conditioning  the  thorough  self-demonstration 
of  their  merit  or  demerit,  their  persistence  or  self- 
destruction,  the  objective  motivity  of  love  is  enhanced 
and  that  of  selfishness  is  abolished.  This  outcome  must 
afford  a  universal  conviction  that  love  is  perfect  action, 
perfectly  adjusted  life ;  establishes  susceptibility  to  mo- 
tives of  love,  and  aversion  to  selfishness ;  and  thus  settles 
all  disturbing  questions  and  secures  universal  harmony. 

We  will  be  helped,  however,  in  gaining  a  more  ex- 
plicit view  of  this  solution  by  a  succinct  grouping  of  the 
leading  points  or  stages  in  the  process. 


THE   SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2II 

The  Process  of  Faith. 

A.  i.  Love  posits,  in  nature,  or  maintains  by  super- 
natural intervention,  the  conditions  to  faith. 

2.  Faith  cancels  the  susceptibility  of  self-love  to  self- 
ishness ;  and  conditions  the  progressive  determination 
of  dependent  persons  by  conditioning  hope  and  love  in 
them. 

3.  The  complete  development  of  their  faith,  exercised 
by  love,  establishes  in  them  the  highest  finite  experience 
of  personal  freedom,  harmony,  and  security ;  and  estab- 
lishes in  their  self-love  entire  susceptibility  to  the  mo- 
tivity  of  the  ideal  self,  the  ideal  universe,  and  the  moral 
authority  of  the  perfect  in  divine  love ;  that  is,  suscepti- 
bility to  love  and  aversion  to  selfishness. 

4.  These  self-determined  qualities,  harmony,  largest 
freedom,  and  security,  are  the  essential  conditions  to  the 
achievement  of  the  highest  good. 

The  Process  of  Persistence. 

B.  1.  This  determination  of  love,  upon  the  basis  of 
faith,  eliminates  evil  (1)  by  repentance  of  evil  intention, 
(2)  by  the  corrective  discipline  of  ill  results. 

2.  The  opposite  or  selfish  determination  eliminates 
uncorrected  evil  by  self-defeat. 

3.  The  result  of  this  process,  confirming  faith  by  de- 
monstrating the  progress  and  persistence  of  love  as  per- 
fect self-determining  action,  and  demonstrating  the 
turpitude  of  selfishness,  settles  all  the  questions  which 
sin  had  raised  and  abolishes  all  objective  incentives  to 
evil. 

The  importance  of  these  forms  of  motivity,  however, 
demands  a  fuller  elaboration  of  this  scheme. 


212  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

A.  i.  The  natural  conditions  in  which  man  is  placed 
by  his  Creator  render  him  conscious  of  certain  always 
conditioning  facts  :  being,  dependence,  self-love,  reason, 
conscience,  and  self-determination,  or  will.  These  are 
the  abiding  conditions  upon  which  faith  arises  and  is 
maintained.  The  first  three  give  rise  to  the  impulse  or 
demand  for  progressive  development,  the  last  three  con- 
strue what  that  development  should  be  and  the  manner 
of  realizing  it.  Upon  the  facts  being  and  dependence, 
reason  unavoidably  recognizes  the  independent ;  and  in 
the  independent  readily  recognizes  the  infinite,  the  per- 
fect, the  absolute.  To  self-love,  with  its  love  of  being 
and  desire  for  highest  good,  conscience  promptly  unites 
the  demand  to  be  one's  best  self.  All  these  find  har- 
monization in  the  effort  of  self-determination  to  harmon- 
ize the  dependent  with  the  independent.  This  effort  to 
find  the  best  adjustment  of  being,  an  effort  which  is 
spontaneous  in  all  mankind,  gives  rise  naturally  to  the 
question,  what  is  the  ideal,  or  perfect  life  ?  And  what- 
ever any  one  may  judge  to  be  the  ideal,  or  true  life  for 
him  under  his  circumstances,  is  the  ideal  which  con- 
science insists  he  ought  to  actualize.  This  moral  author- 
ity which  conscience  gives  to  the  ideal  of  life  is  wholly 
inexplicable,  except  as  the  independent  sentiment  of  a 
perfect  being.  This  ideal  of  life,  or  ideal  self,  is  not  an 
object  of  perception  and  need  not  be  rationally  defined, 
but  the  demand  for  it  is  felt  in  the  sense  of  dependence 
and  self-love,  its  moral  authority  as  a  criterion  for  actual 
life  is  felt  in  conscience,  reason  grasps  it  as  an  implica- 
tion of  the  independent,  and  self-determination  seeks  to 
actualize  it.  In  a  word,  these  facts  impose  the  convic- 
tion that  present  being  has  its  only  significance  and 
satisfaction  in  becoming.     "  Man  never  is  [fully],   but 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  21^ 

always  to  be,  blest."  Acting  upon  this  conviction  is  ad- 
justing the  existing  self  as  a  becoming  self,  seeking  per- 
fect selfhood.  And  this  is  only  saying  that  it  is  acting 
upon  the  facts  which  consciously  condition  our  being. 
This  is  living,  active,  practical,  natural  faith,  the  subser- 
vience of  the  actual  to  the  ideal,  of  the  present  to  the 
becoming,  the  imperfect  to  the  perfect,  the  dependent 
to  the  independent.  It  arises  naturally  upon  natural 
conditions ;  and  must  arise  just  as  naturally  when  the 
same  conditioning  facts  are  revealed  to  the  human  con- 
sciousness by  supernatural  methods. 

2.  Faith  cancels  the  susceptibility  to  self-love ;  and 
conditions  progressive  self-determination  by  hope  and 
love.  The  susceptibility  of  self-love  to  be  beguiled  into 
selfishness  is  the  weak  point,  so  to  speak,  of  the  personal 
universe,  as  it  is  of  the  individual  person.  This  for  the 
reasons  that  they  are  (i)  self-determining,  (2)  their 
steadfast  harmony  must  be  progressively  self-determined, 

(3)  this  progress  must  be  incited  by  desire  or  affection, 

(4)  desires  and  affections  are  susceptible  to  abuse  by 
excess  or  neglect.  A  pure  self-love,  with  but  finite 
knowledge,  may  be  lured  by  the  gratification  of  one 
class  of  desires  or  affections  to  the  neglect  of  others, 
which  if  not  neglected  would  incite  to  further  progress. 
Thus  devoted  to  the  satisfactions  of  an  imperfect  self, 
self-love  sinks  into  selfishness.  Thus  self-love,  condi- 
tioned by  incitements  to  progressively  actualize  an 
ideal  self,  is  liable  to  choose  satisfaction  in  the  ac- 
tual enjoyment  of  those  incitements  and  discard  the 
ideal.  To  fortify  this  weak  point  in  self-love  is  a 
work  which  only  each  person  can  do  for  himself.  To 
do  this  is  to  accomplish  security  by  abolishing  all 
personal  susceptibility  to  selfishness  ;  and  thus  a  person 


2i4  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

or    a    universe   may   become   secure   in   the   steadfast 
harmony  of  love. 

There  are  but  two  possible  conceptions  in  which  a 
free  being  can  be  thought  securely  unsusceptible  to  evil. 
One  is  that  of  his  omniscience,  —  a  perfect  knowledge  of 
the  infinite  excellence  of  love  and  the  non-excellence  of 
selfishness.  But  this  conception  can  apply  only  to  an 
infinite  person  ;  it  is  impossible  to  created  beings.  The 
other  conception  is  that  of  self-love  rendered  unsuscep- 
tible to  selfishness  by  subjecting  actual  self  to  the  pro- 
gressive realization  of  an  ideal  life.  Since  the  suscep- 
tibility of  self-love  to  selfishness  lies  in  satisfaction  with 
the  attained  good  of  actual  self,  faith  cancels  this  sus- 
ceptibility by  subjecting  the  actual  self  and  holding  it 
subservient  to  the  progressive  realization  of  a  better 
and  ideal  self.  This  progressive  realization  is  accom- 
plished by  supreme  devotion  to  God,  as  the  perfect, 
and  devotion  to  finite  persons,  as  possessing  the  rights 
and  interests  of  self-love  in  common. 

Faith  risks  the  rights  and  interests  of  self-love  upon 
its  essential  identity  with  love,  believing  that  love 
toward  God  and  fellow-men  will  realize  the  ideal  life 
which  a  pure  self-love  contemplates.  Faith  thus  gives 
an  outlook  to  hope,  and  affords  scope  for  the  exercise 
of  the  largest  conditioned  self-determination.  Theoreti- 
cally this  faith  contains  the  conception,  first,  that  love, 
as  the  nature  of  God,  is  actual  perfection  or  perfect 
action,  in  which  absolute  truth  and  perfect  good  are 
self-conscious ;  secondly,  that  dependent  being  exists 
in  accordance  with  truth  and  good ;  thirdly,  that  hu- 
man love  toward  God  realizes  essential  harmony  with 
absolute  truth,  and  will  achieve  the  highest  conditioned 
good ;    fourthly,  that  the  highest  interests    of  self-love 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL. 


215 


will  in  some  way  eventually  fall  in  with  supreme  love  to 
God  and  love  toward  fellow-men. 

When  we  say  that  the  purpose  in  creation  is  to  real- 
ize the  greatest  possible  conditioned  good  it  is  said  on 
the  ground  that  love  determines  perfect  benevolence  by 
seeking  to  realize  the  highest  ideal  of  a  universe ;  and 
that  this  ideal  actualized  will  be  the  greatest  possible 
conditioned  good.  All  this  is  held  on  the  ground  that 
love  is  perfect  action,  conscious  of  the  infinite  ideal  and 
of  the  ideal  universe,  and  hence  the  unit  in  which  are 
absolute  truth  and  perfect  good ;  and  on  the  ground 
that  the  highest  good,  conditioned  or  unconditioned,  is 
love's  realization  of  its  ideal. 

The  belief  that  what  is  true  is  essentially  good,  and 
what  is  good  is  essentially  true,  is  in  the  last  generaliza- 
tion the  belief  that  absolute  truth  and  perfect  good 
subsist  in  the  nature  of  perfect  being.  And  since  love 
is  the  nature  of  perfect  being,  it  is  the  ultimate  unit  in 
which  are  perfect  truth  and  good.  Hence  the  highest 
generalization  is  implied  in  "faith  in  God." 

But  the  rise  of  selfishness  questions  this  unity  of 
highest  beneficence  and  perfect  truth  in  love.  It  re- 
gards truth  as  an  arbitrary  structure,  to  be  accepted  only 
as  it  may  be  indicated  by  experienced  utility ;  and  util- 
ity is  estimated  according  as  it  satisfies  the  present, 
actual  self.  Thus  selfishness  is  based  upon  unfaith,  or 
unbelief. 

On  the  other  hand,  love,  in  the  form  of  human  de- 
votement  to  God  or  of  love  to  fellow-men  or  of  pure 
self-love,  implies  the  subjection  of  present,  actual  self, 
with  all  its  utilities,  as  being  but  a  point  of  departure  for 
progress  toward  finite  perfection.  And  this  perfection 
need  not  be  perceived  or  comprehended  in  advance  as 


2I6  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

a  matter  of  knowledge,  but  believed  to  inhere  in  love ; 
and  that  it  will  be  evolved  by  the  harmonious  inter- 
action of  human  love  with  the  all-conditioning  love  of 
God.  Hence  that  attitude  which  man  takes  in  which 
he  subjects  his  actual  self,  with  all  present  interests  and 
utilities,  to  love  of  God  and  fellow-men,  is  actual  or 
living  faith. 

Practically,  then,  faith  is  man's  complete  self-subjec- 
tion to  God,  and  consciously  contains,  first,  entire  de- 
pendence upon  God  for  the  conditions  of  the  highest 
well-being ;  secondly,  entire  freedom  in  practically  re- 
cognizing this  dependence  ;  thirdly,  security  in  moral 
strength  derived  from  purity  of  intention,  alliance  with 
the  independent,  and  acting  from  infinite  motives. 

Hope  arises  spontaneously  upon  these  contents  of 
faith.  When  faith  is  complete  the  sentiment  of  hope 
takes  the  form  of  defined  progress,  and  love  arises  as 
the  nature  of  personal  determination.  The  subjection 
of  the  actual  man  to  the  realization  of  an  ideal  manhood 
kindles  the  aspiration  for  progress.  Maintaining  faith 
which  constantly  thus  subjects  the  actual  to  the  ideal,  he 
can  say  at  any  stage  of  his  experience  :  "  One  thing  I 
do,  forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind  and  stretch- 
ing forward  to  the  things  which  are  before,  I  press  on 
toward  the  goal."  In  the  experience  of  faith  and  hope, 
progress  is  righteousness,  harmony,  freedom,  and  secur- 
ity.    Unbelief  is  fossilization,  and  fossilization  is  sin. 

Love  arises  immediately  and  spontaneously  when 
man's  sense  of  entire  dependence  and  his  free  self-sub- 
jection to  the  ideal  is  complete.  It  is  supreme  devotion 
to  God  as  an  absolutely  perfect  person,  perfectly  holy, 
true,  and  benevolent.  This  supreme  devotement  is  the 
outcome  of  faith's  adjustment  of  those  conditions  which 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2iJ 

the  Creator's  love  originally  affords  for  his  interaction 
with  dependent  persons.  It  is  an  adjustment  which 
subjects  the  intentions  of  man  to  the  moral  authority  of 
the  perfect  as  expressed  in  conscience. 

Practical  faith,  which  thus  operates  through  love,  im- 
pliedly takes  as  an  hypothesis,  takes  for  granted,  that 
God  is  perfect  being,  —  perfect  because  he  is  love,  not 
love  because  he  is  perfect.  This  is  not  logically  defined 
in  faith  but  is  its  spirit,  the  concrete  sentiment  of  its 
action.  Yet  the  truth  thus  hypothetized  is  not  gratui- 
tously assumed  by  dependent  persons,  but  is  consciously 
recognized  by  them  as  imposed  by  the  six  great  facts 
which  we  have  seen,  permanently  conditioning  their 
lives,  —  the  facts  which  impose  the  conviction  that  our 
present  being  has  its  only  meaning  and  real  satisfaction 
in  becoming. 

Faith  in  this  hypothetic  form  contemplates  that  its 
adjustment  to  those  conditions  which  impose  the  con- 
viction of  God's  perfection,  and  all  that  can  be  hoped 
for  as  implied  in  that  perfection,  will  elicit  the  spirit  or 
active  sentiment  of  these  conditions.  Especially  that 
the  action  of  God  which  imposes  the  authority  of 
perfect  intention  in  conscience  will  respond  to  faith's 
adjustment.  This  response  of  the  spirit,  the  concrete 
sentiment  of  the  conditioning  action  of  God  in  us,  "wit- 
nessing with  our  spirit "  that  God  is  love,  ever  in  wait- 
ing to  respond  to  our  self-subjection,  is  the  demonstration 
of  faith's  hypothesis. 

The  consequent  consciousness  of  harmony  between 
conscience  and  passion,  harmony  among  a  community 
of  persons  thus  faithful,  and  harmony  of  dependent 
with  independent,  progressive  with  perfect,  conscious- 
ness of  awakened  susceptibility  to  the  intrinsic  motives 


2Ig  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

which  inhere  in  the  nature  of  the  independent,  such  as 
holiness,  truth,  and  good ;  consciousness  of  enlarged 
freedom,  exalted  self-determination,  and  increased  moral 
strength,  —  are  practical  developments  of  this  demon- 
stration. 

Faith  thus  conditions  actual  progress  from  the  present 
to  a  better  self,  the  conscious  passing  from  selfishness 
to  love,  from  guilt  to  moral  purity  ;  progress  in  actualizing 
an  ever-advancing,  ideal  selfhood ;  progress  in  appro- 
priating gracious  conditions,  as  a  tree  appropriates  the 
resources  of  the  soil ;  and  progress  in  knowledge  of  the 
truth,  as  the  tree  extends  its  branches  and  unfolds  it 
leaves  to  breathe  a  higher  and  wider  atmosphere. 

3.  The  complete  development  of  their  faith,  exercised 
by  love,  establishes  in  progressive  persons  the  highest 
finite  experience  of  personal  freedom,  harmony,  and  se- 
curity, and  establishes  in  their  self-love  entire  susceptibil- 
ity to  the  motivity  of  the  ideal  self,  the  ideal  universe, 
and  the  moral  authority  of  the  perfect  in  divine  love  ; 
that  is,  susceptibility  to  love  and  aversion  to  selfishness. 

In  this  life  of  faith  which  is  elaborated  by  love,  a  life 
which  is  elaborated  upon  the  highest  and  widest  gener- 
alization, personal  character  is  not  trammelled  by  mech- 
anism or  restricted  to  the  narrow  limits  of  perceived 
facts,  but  has  the  scope  of  all  the  implied  facts  of  being 
and  love.  Devoted  to  the  realization  of  an  uncompre- 
hended,  ideal  selfhood,  it  lays  hold  of  the  infinite  motives 
which  are  implied  in  the  all-conditioning  independent ; 
the  limitless  benevolence  and  the  moral  authority  of  the 
perfect.  Whether  these  data  of  faith  are  presented  to 
the  human  consciousness  by  natural  or  supernatural 
methods,  they  constitute  the  broad  platform  upon  which 
human  love  determines  the  largest  finite  freedom  and 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  21g 

highest  harmony.  By  habitual  faith,  confirmed,  stead- 
fast, inwrought  by  devotion  to  God  in  the  midst  of 
temptation,  self-denial,  and  duty,  human  beings  oblit- 
erate, cancel  permanently  all  susceptibility  to  selfishness, 
and  thus  determine  their  security.  Moreover,  this  se- 
curity is  buttressed  by  the  intensely  developed  suscepti- 
bility to  all  motives  of  love,  and  the  aversion  to  selfish- 
ness. These  results  are  attained  in  the  process  of  faith's 
demonstration  of  love's  perfection  and  the  turpitude  of 
selfishness.  Susceptibility  to  love  and  aversion  to  selfish- 
ness are  the  lines  of  eternal  fortification  to  the  security 
of  free,  finite  beings ;  and  these  are  established  by  that 
progress  which  faith  conditions,  hope  desires  and  ex- 
pects, and  love  determines. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  freedom,  harmony,  and  se- 
curity of  finite  persons  are  all  implicit  in  the  steadfast 
faith  of  even  the  least  of  those  who  trust  in  God.  It  is 
not  a  philosophy  or  a  culture,  though  it  affords  both  the 
largest  philosophy  and  culture,  but  it  is  the  enactment 
of  a  concrete  sentiment  which  is  inspired  by  the  facts 
which  God's  conditioning  love  discloses,  naturally  and 
supernaturally,  to  the  human  consciousness.  It  is  the 
enactment  of  a  concrete  sentiment  which  adjusts  the 
actual  to  the  ideal,  as  the  essential  condition  upon 
which  to  realize  that  ideal.  It  is  the  consciously  free 
self-subjection,  or  self-adjustment  of  the  determining 
dependent,  to  the  conditioning  independent  being.  It 
is  the  arena  of  proof  in  which  finite  action  gains  assur- 
ance of  the  implications  of  the  infinite.  Hence  all  the 
questions  which  sin  raises  are  settled  by  the  progressive 
development  of  personal  harmony,  freedom,  and  secur- 
ity upon  the  conditions  of  faith.  Hence  it  is  in  faith 
that  the  solution  of  evil  is  found. 


220  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

4.  These  self-determined  qualities,  harmony,  free- 
dom, and  security,  are  the  essential  conditions  to  the 
achievement  of  the   highest  finite   good. 

We  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter  that  the  benevo- 
lence of  love  implies  that  the  greatest  good  in  kind  and 
degree  possible  to  conditioned  beings  is  the  divine  ob- 
ject, or  purpose,  in  creation.  What  are  the  forms  in 
which  that  purpose  is  to  be  ultimately  realized,  we  have 
not  presumed  to  say.  But  in  whatever  form  or  forms 
or  in  whatever  degree  this  object  is  ultimately  developed, 
love  implies  that  it  is  wholly  beneficent,  and  that  it  is 
the  highest  conditionable  good.  This  is  merely  saying 
that  the  highest  good,  conditioned  or  unconditioned,  is 
the  practical  realization  of  love. 

We  have  seen,  also,  that  this  highest  good  can  never  be 
realized,  except  as  the  product  of  a  universe  which  is  per- 
fect in  certain  characteristics  or  qualities  ;  a  universe  con- 
sisting of  finite  persons  whose  qualities,  or  character,  are 
incident  to  their  perfect  interaction  with  that  divine  action 
which  affords  the  conditions  of  their  existence.  It  is  utter 
folly  to  suppose  that  the  greatest  possible  good  may  be 
achieved  by  factors  who  are  imperfect  in  quality,  and  im- 
perfect in  their  interaction.  Hence  we  have  seen  that 
the  supreme  good,  unalloyed  in  kind  and  limitless  in  de- 
gree, is  utterly  unattainable  by  finite  persons  until  their 
qualitative  perfection  is  attained.  The  realization  of  the 
good,  then,  is  conditioned  upon  the  quality  of  persons 
who  are  disembarrassed  of  all  disharmony,  all  unessential 
limitation,  and  all  susceptibility  to  defection,  or  selfish- 
ness. The  thinkable  degree  of  good  which  is  possible  to 
the  highest  thinkable  finite  person  or  persons  cannot  be 
thought  attainable  except  on  these  qualitative  conditions. 
Hence  we  reaffirm  that  the  supreme  good  of  the  universe 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  22I 

must  be  conditioned  upon  the  perfection  which  love 
realizes  in  God,  and  the  perfected  quality,  or  character, 
of  the  persons  who  compose  the  universe.  The  essential 
characteristics  of  finite  perfection,  we  have  seen,  are  the 
largest  finite  consciousness  of  freedom,  perfect  harmony 
in  this  freedom,  and  perfect  security  in  this  harmony. 
These,  then,  are  the  qualitative  perfections  which  are  the 
essential  conditions  to  the  supreme  good  of  the  universe. 

We  have  seen,  also,  that  these  qualities  of  free  beings 
must  be  achieved  by  their  cancelling  all  susceptibility  to 
selfishness.  We  have  seen,  too,  that  not  only  freedom 
and  harmony,  but  security,  by  cancelling  this  suscepti- 
bility, is  determined  by  these  persons  themselves.  In  a 
word,  the  conditions  to  the  highest  good  cannot  be  at- 
tained, except  in  the  self-determined  character  of  God's 
creatures.  Hence  it  is  clear  that  to  determine  their 
largest  freedom,  complete  harmony  and  steadfast  secur- 
ity is  the  only  method  by  which  the  highest  good  can 
be  attained. 

It  has  been  made  clear,  also,  that  these  qualitative 
conditions  are  determined  in  each  person  by  perfecting 
his  love  to  God,  his  pure  self-love,  and  his  love  to  his 
fellow-beings.  In  other  words,  by  his  devotion  to  a 
perfect  God,  to  the  realization  of  a  perfect  self,  and  to 
the  perfecting  of  all  others,  —  the  perfect  companionship. 

Thus  it  appears  that  these  characteristics,  —  freedom, 
harmony,  and  security,  —  which  each  conditioned  person 
may  determine  in  himself,  are  the  matured  conditions 
upon  which  such  persons  may  be  living  factors,  inter- 
acting with  God,  to  achieve  the  grand  purpose  of  the 
universe.  They  are  a  set  of  conditions  which  God  could 
not  create.  Even  if  he  could  create  dependent  persons 
in  the  highest  harmony  and  freedom,  yet  he  could  not 


22 2  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

create  them  secure  in  that  harmony  and  freedom,  un- 
susceptible to  beguilement,  —  unsusceptible  to  beguile- 
ment  in  the  use  of  those  affections  and  powers  which 
are  essential  to  instigate  their  development  of  highest 
finite  personalty.  These  qualitative  perfections  of  finite 
persons,  which  they  must  determine  in  themselves  upon 
the  conditions  which  God  posits  in  and  about  them,  en- 
able them,  interacting  with  God,  to  achieve  the  purpose 
of  creation,  unmarred  by  any  suspicion  of  selfishness, 
unalloyed  with  evil. 

Moreover,  these  self-determined  perfections,  the  essen- 
tial conditions  to  the  supreme  conditioned  good,  are 
attainable  by  persons  of  the  least  intelligence  who  act 
upon  faith  in  God.  And  thus  is  established  among 
men,  though  weak  and  ignorant,  that  practical  character 
which  is  possible  only  upon  the  ground  that  love  is 
perfect  action,  the  nature  of  perfect  being,  and  that 
the  realization  of  its  ideals  is  the  highest  good.  This 
establishes  perfect  subjective  motivity  to  good  in  all 
the  faithful ;  and  thus  is  established  the  nucleus  of  a 
self-determined  universe,  free,  harmonious,  secure,  and 
eternal. 

II.  Objective  motivity,  or  external  incentive,  is  to  be 
understood  as  comprehending  every  influence  which 
may  appeal,  as  an  object  of  either  affection  or  aversion, 
to  the  inner  susceptibility.  As  the  subjective  motivity  is 
perfected  by  the  cancelling  of  all  susceptibility  to  selfish- 
ness, on  the  basis  of  faith,  so  also  is  the  objective  motivity 
to  love  completed  by  the  persistence  of  love  and  the 
failure  of  selfishness.  This  persistence  is  in  two  princi- 
pal forms,  —  the  persistent  conditioning  process  of  divine 
love,  and  the  persistent  determination  of  human  love,  — 
both  evincing  perpetual  personal  life  and  altruism. 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  22^ 

Persistence,  the  true  "  survival  of  the  fittest,"  is  the  test 
of  perfect  action,  hence  a  test  of  personal  excellence. 
It  is  a  question  between  love  and  selfishness  upon  which 
their  claims  to  excellence  must  be  demonstrated.  If 
the  nature  of  perfect  action  is  love,  a  mode  of  self-deter- 
mination capable  of  perpetual  personality,  eternal  life,  it 
will  persist.  If  selfishness  is  capable  of  persistent  and 
progressive  personality  it  must  abide  evermore.  But 
personalty  is  self-determined  freedom,  hence  the  ques- 
tion of  persistence  depends  upon  the  power  to  maintain 
or  extend  personal  determination.  If  love  were  a  mode 
of  personal  action  which  would  increase  its  limitations 
and  diminish  its  freedom,  or  self-determining  power,  it 
would  only  be  a  question  of  time,  when  in  the  exercise  of 
love,  personality  would  be  wholly  sunken  and  lost.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  throws  off  limitations,  obtains  mastery 
of  conditions,  makes  use  of  them  to  rise  to  higher  con- 
ditions, and  survives  their  use,  it  thus  not  only  maintains, 
but  enlarges  its  sphere  of  self-determination,  and  enacts 
a  persistent  personality.  So,  also,  if  selfishness,  as  a 
mode  of  self-determination  antagonistic  to  love,  increases 
personal  limitations,  diminishes  personal  freedom,  it  is 
only  a  question  of  time  when,  by  selfishness,  personal 
freedom  will  be  wholly  sunken.  And,  on  the  contrary, 
if  it  can  determine  a  perpetual  personal  existence,  it 
must  continue  evermore.  Hence  it  is  plain  that  the 
excellence  of  personal  being  consists  not  in  pleasure, 
but  in  exalted  personality,  self-determined  persistence. 
This  is  the  supreme  good.  It  is  found  in  that  mode  of 
action  which  realizes  persistent  personal  development  in 
companionship  with  the  immortals. 

The  exponents  which  indicate  the  degree  of  personal 
self-determination  are  personal  persistence  and  altruistic 


2  24  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

freedom.  Love,  the  action  which  realizes  perfect  egoism 
in  God,  affords  perfect  altruistic  freedom  and  subjects 
itself  to  a  test  of  this  freedom  in  creating  and  upholding 
a  universe  of  persons  who  are  free  to  antagonize  and 
pervert  its  action.  It  maintains  the  conditions  of  their 
existence,  freedom,  and  progressive  development.  And 
nothing  but  their  own  free  determination  can  impair 
these  conditions  or  debase  their  own  personality.  And 
if  the  benevolence  of  the  Creator  endures,  uncorrupted 
and  unimpaired,  any  strain  which  the  freedom  of  the 
universe,  can  impose  upon  it,  the  universe  thereby  demon- 
strates the  perfect  altruistic  freedom,  and  this  demonstra- 
tion implies  the  perfect  self-determination,  of  his  love. 
Thus  the  universe  becomes  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
love  is  perfect  action.  Love,  by  creating  a  personal 
universe,  professes  to  be  the  nature  of  independent  be- 
ing, perfect  action,  infinite  energy  perfectly  adjusted, 
which  is  infinite  personality,  and  permits  the  universe 
to  demonstrate  to  itself  this  perfection.  Moreover,  for 
persons  who  shall  by  means  of  loving  devotion  to  others 
determine  a  progressive  personality  in  themselves,  their 
altruistic  devotement  stands  as  the  exponent  of  their 
personal  excellence.  The  degree  to  which  they  are 
capable  of  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  others  is  the 
measure  of  their  personal  greatness.  Thus  each  person 
has  in  himself  the  means  by  which  to  demonstrate  the 
persistent  and  progressive  quality  of  a  loving  self-deter- 
mination. He,  therefore,  demonstrates  for  himself  that 
love  has  in  it  eternal  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  selfishness  says  :  "  Live  for  your 
own  pleasure  and  ambition.  Use  your  strength  of  frame 
and  brain  to  subdue  others  and  appropriate  their  rights 
and  service."     Self-satisfaction  is  the  criterion  of  per- 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL. 


225 


sonal  excellence  which  selfishness  affords.  Each  person 
possesses  the  conditions  upon  which  he  may  prove  his 
personal  exaltation  or  degradation  in  the  degree  he  is 
capable  of  altruistic  devotement.  If  he  must  absorb  the 
resources  of  others  to  maintain  his  satisfaction,  secure 
his  good,  he  is  to  that  extent  dependent,  personally 
limited.  Though  he  have  the  material  and  intellectual 
might  of  a  Caesar  or  Antony,  or  the  splendor  and  admi- 
ration of  a  Cleopatra,  and  yet  requires  them  all  to  satisfy 
his  passion  for  pleasure  or  power,  he  simply  evinces  that 
all  his  resources  are  absorbed  by  his  lowest  and  narrowest 
subjective  wants.  Selfish  egoism  is  an  ever  hungering, 
but  unsatisfied  self-limitation. 

In  the  security  gained  by  cancelling  self-love's  suscep- 
tibility to  selfishness  we  have  the  first  cardinal  point  of 
love's  persistence  in  successfully  fortifying  the  weakest 
point  in  finite  persons. 

The  point  now  to  be  noted  is  the  disposition  to  be 
made  of  the  evil  which  has  resulted  to  human  nature  by 
selfishness ;  and  the  evils  of  human  environment  in  the 
form  of  perverted  social,  civic,  and  religious  conditions ; 
evils  which  have  been  developed  through  the  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  perversions  which  have  arisen  from  self- 
ishness. Centuries  of  abuse  have  given  apparently  perma- 
nent hold  to  these  evils  and  made  them  the  hereditary  lot 
of  mankind.  They  have  the  seeming,  at  least,  of  persis- 
tent forces  ;  and  many  have  been  led  to  regard  them  as  a 
part  of  the  essential  structure  of  human  nature.  But  their 
permanence  is  only  apparent,  not  essential.  The  fact  that 
faith,  working  by  love,  is  practicable  with  all  human  be- 
ings, with  the  crudest  as  well  as  the  cultured,  evinces  that 
personal  determination  upon  the  conditions  of  grace  can 
uproot  them  all.     Hence,  "the  process  of  persistence." 

*5 


226  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

B.  i.  The  determination  of  human  love  upon  the  basis 
of  faith  eliminates  evil,  (i)  by  repentance  of  evil  in- 
tention ;  (2)  by  the  corrective  discipline  of  ill  results. 
This  is  to  say  that  essential  harmony  maintained  or 
restored  by  repentance  persists  in  its  ability  to  correct 
all  ill  results  either  of  error  or  sin  ;  just  as  truly  adjusted 
machinery  wears  away  and  corrects  all  superficial  rough- 
ness or  inequalities.  A  universe  evolved  by  love  can 
neutralize,  make  away  with,  or  turn  to  account  all  in- 
accuracies. (1)  Of  wrong  actions,  all  is  of  the  nature  of 
mere  inaccuracy,  except  bad  intentions.  These  alone 
constitute  self-determining  action.  Therefore,  in  a  uni- 
verse of  persons,  ultimate  harmony  depends  on  harmony 
of  intentions  alone.  A  sin  once  committed  can  never 
be  recalled ;  it  is  an  enacted  reality,  existing  now  inde- 
pendent of  the  will  or  wish  of  the  perpetrator.  But  since 
the  intention  in  sin  may  be  recalled,  repented,  confessed, 
renounced,  the  original  harmony  of  pure  intention  be- 
tween God  and  the  sinner  may  be  restored;  and  this 
personal  harmony  will  ultimately  correct  the  ill  effect 
which  the  sinner  may  have  otherwise  sustained.  Hence, 
upon  repentance  of  intention,  faith  affords  personal  re- 
adjustment and  reparation,  in  the  sense  of  forgiveness 
and  moral  recuperation,  to  sinners. 

(2)  The  objective  evil  effects  of  their  former  sinful 
actions  fall  into  the  category  of  inaccuracies,  errors,  or 
superficial  maladjustments,  and  are  transcended  by 
reparation  or  by  being  otherwise  turned  to  account  as 
means  of  corrective  chastisement  and  discipline,  or  in 
mutual  neutralization  and  self-defeat.  They  have  be- 
come a  part  of  the  general  environment,  in  which  they 
ultimately  neutralize  each  other.  Physical  death,  the 
culmination  of  these  ills  in  a  change  of  environment, 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  227 

ends  them  for  individuals.  The  corrective  and  dis- 
ciplinary tendency  which  love-given  conditions,  natural 
and  supernatural,  impose  upon  error  and  sin,  conditions 
all  persons  with  means  of  personal  recuperation.  The 
overmastering  for  good  which  love's  world-sustaining  ac- 
tivities give  to  all  objective  results  of  finite  action  are 
but  "that  force  not  ourselves"  which,  as  history  wit- 
nesses, "  makes  for  righteousness."  Man's  personal  de- 
termination in  faith  and  love  co-operating  with  divine 
love,  in  and  around  him,  thus  not  only  persists  as  against 
the  evil  results  of  former  abuses,  but  as  counteracting, 
neutralizing,  and  outliving  them. 

Again,  if  alongside  of  selfishness  and  in  spite  of  its 
obstructions  love  is  able  to  demonstrate  its  merit  as  a 
mode  of  self-determination,  it  will  successfully  condi- 
tion their  mastery  of  limitations,  and  enlarge  the  scope 
of  self-determination  for  individuals  and  communities 
who  accept  it,  giving  real  progress ;  if  it  afford  them, 
each  and  all,  an  altruistic  self-love ;  if  it  advance 
them  to  clearer  knowledge  of  truth  and  wider  domi- 
nance of  pure  intention ;  if  it  give  them  increasing 
susceptibility  to  unselfish  motives,  and  aspirations  to  per- 
fect personal  character;  if,  in  a  word,  it  enable  them  to 
"  partake  of  the  divine  nature,"  which  is  supreme  devo- 
tion to  perfection  of  being,  then  human  self-love  be- 
comes, like  that  of  God,  unsusceptible  to  selfishness, 
averse  to  all  evil,  and  morally  incapable  of  questioning 
the  infinite  merit  of  love  or  the  entire  demerit  of  sin. 

Further,  if  love  accomplish  this  demonstration,  not- 
withstanding the  utmost  antagonism  of  sin,  notwith- 
standing the  strain,  so  to  speak,  which  the  free  course 
of  selfishness  has  put  upon  it,  then  love  becomes  self- 
conscious  in  the  universe  as  the  nature  of  independ- 


228  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

ence ;  proves  itself  to  be  perfect  action  in  conditioned 
being  by  its  self-sustained  persistence. 

With  this  universal  consciousness  that  love  is  perfect 
action  will  appear  that  its  ideal  is  absolute  truth ;  that 
this  truth  is  the  ground  of  moral  obligation,  that  ethical 
being,  or  personality,  is  the  highest  mode  of  existence, 
that  a  universe  evolved  by  love  is  the  perfect  universe, 
and  that  God  is  the  unconditioned,  infinite,  perfect 
person,  who  alone  exists  in  his  own  right,  and  by 
whose  grace,  only,  all  finite  beings  exist,— and  hence,  to 
whom  is  due,  by  infinite  obligation,  the  supreme  love 
and  confidence  of  all  dependent  persons. 

2.  Selfish  determination  eliminates  uncorrected  evil 
by  self-defeat  and  self-limitation.  This  is  to  say  that 
uncorrected  selfishness  and  its  corruption  of  conditions 
render  those  conditions  retributive. 

Retribution  is  a  change  of  conditions  which  results 
to  conditioned  persons  either  as  reward  or  punishment, 
accordingly  as  they  determine.  We  have  already 
recognized  that  justice  is  the  lowest  plain  upon  which 
love  can  be  thought  to  condition  the  existence  of  per- 
sons. Hence,  when  individuals  or  communities  by 
selfish  determination  debase  themselves  and  the  gen- 
eral environment  beneath  all  susceptibility  to  recovery, 
and  assure  like  debasement  to  all  sincere  persons  who 
may  appear  among  them,  children  and  youth  for  ex- 
ample, justice,  the  lowest  form  of  love,  must  in  some 
way  eliminate  them  from  conditioning  forces.  When 
they  render  themselves  unsusceptible  to  love,  are  mor- 
ally incapable  of  faith  or  reform,  love  cannot  permit 
them  to  condition  the  ruin  of  persons  who,  in  these 
conditions,  cannot  but  be  overwhelmed.  Furthermore, 
they  are,  in  this  incorrigible  character,  no  longer  objects 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  22g 

of  gracious  recovery,  and  their  continuance  in  such 
gracious  conditions  would  indicate  imbecility  in  divine 
love  to  maintain  itself  or  sustain  the  innocent.  They 
are  objects  of  retribution. 

Retribution  must,  in  some  way,  take  place.  But  this 
does  not  necessarily  imply  that  supernatural  or  miracu- 
lous infliction  must  intervene  to  punish  obdurates.  Nor 
does  it  imply  a  suspension  or  violation  of  their  personal 
determination.  On  the  contrary  it  means  that  their 
conditions  must  change,  or  rather  that  they  have,  by 
self-perversion  wrecked  their  relations  to  the  faith-con- 
ditioning quality  of  divine  love's  activities  in  and  around 
them ;  and  that  now  these  activities,  by  reason  of  their 
perversion  and  man's  false  attitude  towards  them  have 
become  retributive.  Retributive  suffering  is  wholly  a 
matter  of  abused  conditions,  whether  those  conditions 
are  naturally  or  supernaturally  given.  All  retributive  suf- 
fering must  come  about  as  a  revolution  of  conditions,  nat- 
ural or  supernatural ;  and  these  revolutions  are  brought 
about  by  dependent  persons  themselves,  in  either  their 
individual  or  collective  capacities,  or  both.  The  physi- 
cal elements,  though  inestimable  blessings  in  their  use, 
are  sources  of  unspeakable  danger  and  calamity  in  their 
abuse.  A  man's  attitude  in  relation  to  them  must  deter- 
mine whether  they  shall  be  to  him  a  blessing  or  a  curse. 
So,  also,  the  most  intense  conditions  to  human  exaltation 
which  divine  love  affords,  naturally  or  supernaturally,  must 
be  rendered  by  man's  self-perversion  the  most  intense 
conditions  to  retributive  disaster.  Man  may  make  them 
the  home  of  peace  and  good  will,  or  the  den  of  beasts 
and  fiends.  In  the  former  case,  peace,  progress,  ideal 
truth  and  beauty  will  be  realized  by  communities  and 
individuals ;  in  the  latter,  they  must  perish. 


230  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

We  recognize  at  this  point  that  as  the  conditions  of 
human  life  are  in  three  general  forms  or  classes,  men's 
retributive  changes  of  condition  are,  correspondingly, 
three  :  — 

(a)  Race  retribution. 

{b)  Social,  or  community  retribution. 

(V)  Individual  retribution. 

(a)  The  first  are  the  race  conditions  according  to  which 
generations  of  individual  beings  have  their  successive 
continuance  and  qualities  in  common.  It  is  not  accurate 
to  say  that  "  man  is  born  an  animal,"  if  we  use  the  term 
"  animal  "  synonymously  with  "  beast "  or  «  brute."  He 
is  born  a  personal  nature.  The  babe  is  not  a  mere  animal 
nature  upon  which  a  personal  nature  may  be  developed  ; 
any  more  than  the  dainty  egg  in  the  nest  is  a  seedling 
of  the  honeysuckle  from  which  a  humming-bird  may  be 
developed.  He  is  born  a  personal  nature  upon  which 
self-determination  may  arise  and  develop  conscious  per- 
sonality. But  upon  a  brute-nature,  however  perfect,  a 
personal  self-determination  can  never  be  developed. 
The  human  race  is  a  race  of  beings  whose  natures  are 
conditions  to  personal  self-determination,  —  a  race  of 
personal  natures.  They  are  naturally  animal  only  in  the 
sense  that  they  exist  upon  and  have  some  common 
race  conditions.  The  abuse  of  race  conditions  by  any 
individual  must  debase  those  conditions  for  succeeding 
members  of  the  race,  just  to  the  extent  he  may  have 
race-relationship  to  them.  And  if  he  happens  to  be 
the  first  of  a  family  or  tribe  or  of  the  whole  human  race, 
his  abuse  of  race  conditions  must  deprave  the  nature  of 
all  succeeding  him  unless  there  may  be  some  method  of 
amelioration. 

This  debasing  of  race  conditions  must  also  corrupt 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  23 1 

and  impair  the  conditions  of  personal  determination  for 
both  individuals  and  communities.  And  if,  instead  of 
resorting  to  ameliorating  methods,  his  descendants  con- 
tinue the  abuse  of  their  race-conditions,  this  abuse,  un- 
corrected, must  be  ultimately  self-limiting  and  self- 
defeating,  —  in  other  words,  retributive  by  way  of  physical 
disorders  and  the  enfeeblement  and  death  of  individuals 
and  communities  as  racial  factors. 

Racial  retribution  is  developed  in  various  ways,  es- 
pecially in  disease,  shortening  of  the  term  of  physical 
life,  and  in  physical  death.  The  implication  of  love  at 
this  point  is  clearly  this  :  if  the  original  adjustment  of 
the  race  to  its  divinely  appointed  nature  and  environ- 
ment had  been  maintained,  —  that  is  to  say,  if  selfish  self- 
determination  had  not  been  adopted  by  man,  thereby 
abusing  and  perverting  his  nature  and  misadjusting  it  to 
his  environment  in  racial  respects,  —  individual  develop- 
ment would  have  ultimately  transcended  all  race  condi- 
tions. A  change  of  environment,  progressively,  would 
also  have  been  developed  by  the  progress  of  the  race 
as  a  community.  An  individual  transcendence  of  race 
nature,  or  an  exaltation  of  that  nature  to  higher  capabil- 
ities and  fitness  must  have  resulted  from  individual 
progress  in  interaction  with  God.  Race  relations,  hav- 
ing been  used  in  the  determination  of  higher  relations 
to  God,  must  have  been  eventually  superseded.  To  pass 
to  more  intimate  interaction,  communion,  with  him  who 
is  purely  a  spirit,  and  to  determine  a  quality  and  degree 
of  love  which  is  free  from  physical  or  merely  racial  con- 
ditions, imply  a  change  of  environment  which  corres- 
ponds to  that  which  physical  death,  in  the  perverted 
conditions  of  our  race  nature,  brings  to  the  faithful. 

But,  though  a  change  from  physical  conditions  might 


232  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

have  taken  place  in  case  of  no  maladjustment,  but  be- 
cause of  a  personal  development  from  original  innocence 
by  which  the  present  bodily  conditions  should  be  tran- 
scended, yet  the  further  implication  remains  that  death, 
as  we  know  it,  is  a  catastrophe  which  has  been  precipi- 
tated by  man's  abuse  of  his  nature  and  environment. 
The  personal  transcendence,  or  translation,  of  members 
of  a  sinless  race  may  be  thought  as  a  sublimation  quite 
exalting  and  glorious,  —  quite  other  than  death  as  we 
know  it,  — 

"  Stretched  in  disease's  shapes  abhorred, 
Or  mown  in  battle  by  the  sword." 

Such  development,  it  is  probable,  may  sometime  ob- 
tain in  the  latest  generations  of  men,  when  "  they  shall 
not  all  die,  but  shall  all  be  changed."  Such  change  of 
individual  conditions  may  be  termed  translation,  or  exal- 
tation, but  not  death.  Death  is  a  catastrophe  which, 
though  it  cannot  prevent  the  passage  of  faithful  persons 
to  higher  conditions  of  companionship  with  God,  is, 
nevertheless,  a  horrid  illustration  of  the  self-limitation 
and  self-defeat  of  racial  evil.  Physical  death  fastened 
upon  racial  conditions,  while  failing  to  intercept  the  per- 
sistent personal  progress  of  the  faithful,  is  but  self-limi- 
tation and  self-defeat  to  the  selfish. 

This  physical  catastrophe  which  results  from  moral 
obliquity  has,  for  aught  any  one  can  see,  become 
hereditary  because  the  physical  maladjustments,  con- 
tinued and  multiplied,  have  been  made  hereditary. 
Nor  can  any  one  affirm  that  if  the  human  race,  or  any 
of  its  members,  shall  at  any  time,  recover  complete 
readjustment  to  the  Creator's  physical  activities  they 
may   not   find   immunity    from  disease  and  death.     A 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2^ 

witty  scoffer  has  said,  "  In  a  perfect  world  good  health 
and  not  disease  should  be  catching."  And  so  it  may, 
with  perfect  adjustment. 

To  urge  that  physical  death  is  natural,  inasmuch  as  it 
prevails  as  a  law  in  the  natural  relations  of  plants  and 
animals,  is  nothing  to  the  purpose,  since  these  have  no 
discoverable  object  other  than  to  constitute  some  of  the 
conditions  to  the  development  of  personal  life. 

Death  by  age  or  infirmity  is  the  wearing  out  of  the 
bodily  energies  by  an  attrition  which,  when  in  earlier 
ages  it  was  less,  occurred  after  longer  periods  than 
in  the  more  complex  and  multiplied  abuses  of  later 
generations. 

That  physical  calamities,  such  as  earthquakes,  storms, 
etc.,  would  have  taken  place,  we  do  not  dispute.  But 
it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  dangerous  exposure  to 
these  things  would  have  occurred,  had  the  propagation  of 
the  race  and  its  spread  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  pro- 
ceeded according  to  the  promptings  of  a  righteous  ad- 
justment to  its  environment.  Whether  the  occasion  be 
a  Noachian  deluge  or  the  physical  destruction  of  a  Sodom, 
there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  human  exposure 
to  these  catastrophes  might  have  been  naturally 
avoided  had  the  locating  and  pursuits  of  communities 
proceeded  according  to  the  promptings  of  aright  adjust- 
ment of  man  to  his  conditions.  Nor  can  it  be  denied 
that  the  appropriating  the  earth  by  men,  in  righteous 
adjustment  to  God  and  each  other,  might  have  pro- 
ceeded in  such  a  way,  in  all  cases,  as  to  find  these  physical 
convulsions  harmlessly  correlated  with  the  progressive 
preparation  of  a  fit  environment  for  a  progressive  race. 

Death  by  want,  war,  or  crime  is,  also  avoidable  by 
righteousness ;    would  never  have  taken   place  but  for 


234  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

selfishness;   and   will  cease   among   men   through  the 
persistence  of  love. 

In  all  this  we  can  see  nothing  in  physical  death  from 
either  disease,  old  age,  famine,  violence,  or  physical 
catastrophe  which  evinces  that  it  is  anything  other  than 
a  change  of  environment  hastened  and  rendered  appall- 
ing, if  not  brought  about,  by  the  continuous  mal- 
adjustment of  man  to  his  natural  conditions,  —  a  change 
which  love's  evolution  is  made  to  effect  by  this  mal- 
adjustment, and  by  which  love  avoids  injustice  in 
conditioning  the  personal  determination  of  man.  It  is 
a  calamity  which  no  individual  of  the  race  can  prevent 
in  himself,  for  the  reason  that  the  maladjustment  is 
racial.  Though  death  by  violence  is  often  immediately 
caused  by  individuals  or  communities,  yet  these  causes 
are  conditioned  in  race  and  society  abuses.  Ancestors 
have  induced,  largely,  the  individual's  physical  maladjust- 
ment. Its  correction,  like  its  induction,  must  be  racial. 
It  is  a  racial,  not  individual,  retribution.  It  is  a  change 
of  environment  which  can  inflict  no  irreparable  injustice 
upon  the  innocent,  but  protects  innocence  from  a  fatal 
domination  of  corrupted  conditions.  It  serves  the  cor- 
rective discipline  of  the  corrigible ;  and  is  retributive  to 
the  incorrigible  only  because  his  selfishness  has  sought 
its  good  in  these  racial  abuses  and  sacrificed  spiritual 
to  racial  conditions. 

The  sum  of  what  can  be  affirmed  of  this  whole  matter 
of  physical  death  is  this  :  There  is  that  correlation  in 
love's  activities  which  conditions  either  the  innocence, 
the  progressive  development,  the  corrective  chastisement, 
or  the  just  retribution,  of  man,  as  a  race,  a  community, 
or  an  individual.  But  man  determines  which  of  these 
results  it  shall  be. 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2,e 

(b)  Social  retribution,  or  retribution  to  communities,  is 
that  revolution  of  this  class  of  conditions  which  men,  as 
communities,  determine.  Personal  associations  growing 
out  of  individual  and  race  conditions,  and  taking  the 
form  of  households,  tribes,  nations,  or  the  entire  popu- 
lation of  the  earth,  sometimes,  we  term  communities. 
Persons  determine  themselves  as  communities  as  well  as 
individuals.  And,  as  communities  modify  the  condi- 
tions of  individuals,  so  do  individuals  modify  the  condi- 
tions of  communities.  Hence  the  self-determination  of 
communities,  as  well  as  that  of  individuals,  is  susceptible 
to  discipline  and  capable  of  progress  or  retrogression. 
Communities  may  be  guilty  of  abusing  their  conditions, 
or  they  may  properly  use  them ;  and  hence  are  suscepti- 
ble to  the  corrective  tendencies  of  divine  love,  or  may 
incorrigibly  abuse  them.  Hence  the  uncorrected  sel- 
fishness of  communities  and  its  corruption  of  conditions 
are  eliminated  by  self-limitation  and  self-defeat.  The 
worth  and  strength  to  persist  of  any  type  of  society  or 
civilization  consists  in  the  degree  to  which  it  conserves 
the  conditions  to  individual  personal  progress.  Accord- 
ing to  this  criterion  communities  must  progress  or 
retrograde  ;  must  go  forward  or  backward.  If  they  go 
forward  the  general  scope  of  individual  freedom,  con- 
sistent with  harmony  and  security,  is  enlarged.  If  they 
go  backward  individual  progress  is  repressed.  Hence 
the  measure  to  which  communities  condition  the  pro- 
gress of  individuals  in  self-perfection  is  the  criterion 
according  to  which  these  communities  must  rise  or  fall. 
Thus  moral  resources  constitute  the  only  disinfectant 
which  can  prevent  the  social,  civic,  and  material  decay 
of  a  community.  However  great  may  be  the  develop- 
ment of  mental  and  material  resources  in  a  community, 


22,6 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


their  abuse,  impairment,  and  ultimate  destruction  must  — 
and  according  to  history  do  —  follow  upon  the  neglect 
or  corruption  of  moral  resources. 

Progress  in  the  development  of  mental  and  material 
resources  may  be  attained  to  a  degree  by  the  efforts  of 
both  the  righteous  and  unrighteous,  —  jointly,  but  from 
different  motives.  The  righteous  by  altruistic  endeavor, 
the  unrighteous  from  motives  of  power,  gain,  and  pleas- 
ure, will  elaborate  utilities  and  refinements.  But  be- 
cause of  this  difference  of  motives,  these  objective 
advantages  are  to  the  former  occasions  for  higher 
determination  of  faith  and  love ;  to  the  latter  they  are 
occasions  for  a  more  inveterate  and  complex  selfishness. 
With  the  one  they  tend  to  unification,  with  the  other, 
to  segregation.  The  preponderance  of  the  better  ele- 
ment tends  to  the  preservation  and  order  of  society,  but 
the  prevalence  of  the  bad  is  the  prelude  to  disorder  and 
disaster.  Though  under  the  impulse  of  virtuous  motives 
a  nation  may  rise  from  barbarism  to  civilization,  from 
civilization  to  refinement,  yet  if  its  moral  resources  be- 
come neglected  or  corrupted  it  will  pass  from  refine- 
ment to  effeminacy  and  thence  to  barbarism  again. 
The  whole  conflict  of  the  ages  is  reducible  to  that  of  the 
spiritual  and  the  physical  man,  —  faith  and  selfishness  ; 
and  in  every  case  in  which  society  has  fully  yielded  to 
the  dominance  of  selfishness,  decay  and  disaster  have 
followed. 

The  amenities  of  divine  love  in  and  around  them,  the 
prolonged  mercy  of  God,  and  the  amplified  advantages 
incident  to  the  general  progress  are  appropriated  by  the 
selfish  ;  and  instead  of  this  "  goodness  leading  them  to 
repentance,"  they  make  it  their  opportunity  for  continued 
and   adept  determination   in  selfishness.     Thus   selfish 


THE   SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2^y 

society,  as  such,  must  attain  incorrigibility  in  wicked- 
ness. Though,  like  Babylon  and  the  Roman  Empire, 
nations  may  require  centuries  to  work  out  their  dissolu- 
tion, yet  it  is   inevitable. 

Divergence,  clear  and  radical,  as  between  individuals 
and  communities,  as  between  communities  and  nations, 
must  result  from  these  two  lines  of  self-determination. 
The  data  of  faith  which  are  implicit  in  the  original  con- 
ditions of  our  being  must  become  explicit  in  the  life 
and  practice  of  the  faithful.  Hence  the  antagonism  to 
these  conditions  must  become  pronounced  in  the  life 
and  practice  of  the  selfish.  The  self-developed  persis- 
tence of  a  life  of  love  based  on  faith,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  constructive  persistence  of  selfish  life  based  upon 
the  sufferance  of  divine  mercy  and  the  patience  of  the 
faithful,  on  the  other  hand,  must  result  in  the  divergence 
of  these  two  elements  in  society,  politics,  and  trade.  The 
faithful  must  become  radically  so  ;  the  wicked,  more  con- 
firmed and  implacable  in  wickedness. 

Crises  must  be  brought  about  by  the  essential  antago- 
nism of  the  two  becoming  thus  sharply  defined.  Though 
an  endurable  balance  of  influences  may  delay  a  crisis  for 
a  long  time,  and  the  hopes  of  the  faithful  and  the  fears 
of  the  wicked  may  construct  temporary  conciliations 
and  conventions,  yet  inevitably  the  rupture  must  come 
when  the  pure  must  renounce  the  vile,  the  vile  must 
detest  the  pure. 

These  crises  must  come  to  individuals,  neighborhoods, 
nations,  and  eventually  to  the  entire  population  of  the 
earth.  To  individuals  it  may  be  as  an  outlaw  forsaking 
the  associations  and  restraints  of  a  well-ordered  com- 
munity ;  or  a  Noah,  Abraham,  Lot,  Timon,  Luther,  or 
Roger  Williams  ;  the  Huguenots  or  Puritans,  separating 


238 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


themselves  from  incorrigible  social,  civic,  or  religious 
corruption  or  oppression.  Or  it  may  be  the  vileness 
of  public  sentiment  crucifying  Jesus  or  crushing  by  vio- 
lence a  Socrates,  a  Jeremiah,  a  Stephen,  a  Paul,  a  Huss, 
or  a  Savonarola. 

To  communities  and  nations  these  crises  bring  either 
revolution  or  overthrow.  "  Revolutions  never  go  back- 
ward "  is  a  true  saying  only  because  wickedness,  even  in 
prosperity  and  dominance,  works  its  own  defeat,  while 
the  data  of  faith  and  the  self-sustained  resources  of  love 
persist.  Such  crises  must  be  limited  or  far  reaching  in 
proportion  as  the  issue  is  developed  in  greater  or 
smaller  forms  of  collective  life.  That  faith  gains,  and 
selfishness  loses,  essentially,  in  every  revolution  implies 
that  the  antagonism  is  widening  in  area. 

That  revolutions  never  go  backward  evinces  also  the 
progressive  tendency  of  the  race  toward  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  love  and  the  final  failure  and  defeat  of  evil. 
Progress  from  the  segregation  and  antagonism  which 
have  prevailed  by  reason  of  selfishness  toward  harmony 
and  love  among  peoples  foreshadows  the  ultimate  com- 
munity of  interest  and  association  of  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  The  common  weal  will  embrace,  not  only 
the  people  of  one  tongue  or  land,  but  the  entire  popu- 
lation of  our  planet  at  the  time.  This  result  will  be  the 
necessary  result  of  that  age-long  struggle  between  love 
and  selfishness,  upon  their  respective  merits  or  demerits, 
in  which  love,  based  upon  faith,  will  have  amplified 
human  freedom  and  harmony,  and  the  aggressive  ben- 
evolence of  exalted  individual  and  national  character  will 
have  gathered  up  as  one  the  interests  of  all  men.  Upon 
this  wide  arena  selfishness  will  doubtless  make  long  and 
stubborn  contention   for  persistence.     But   here,  more 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  239 

than  ever  before,  the  divergence  between  society 
based  on  love  and  that  based  upon  selfishness  must 
become  sharply  discriminated,  their  antagonism  recog- 
nized and  actively  pressed  on  all  hands,  —  the  righteous 
unequivocal  in  righteousness,  the  wicked  implacably, 
violently  wicked.  This  supreme  crisis  of  human  history 
must  come. 

The  demonstrated  merit  of  love  in  human  progress 
will  leave  no  pretext  or  ruse  for  selfishness ;  the  selfish 
must  choose  selfishness  in  undisguised  self-degradation. 
The  demonstrated  failure  and  turpitude  of  selfishness 
must  expose  its  devotees  to  universal  shame  and 
contempt. 

This  culmination  is  not  only  the  relentless  behest  of 
ontology,  but  the  common  goal  of  all  the  forces,  social, 
political,  commercial,  and  religious,  which  have  shaped 
and  continue  to  shape  human  history. 

Each  of  these  crises,  domestic,  national,  or  of  the 
entire  population  of  the  earth,  is  an  epoch  of  adjudica- 
tion, a  conscious  realization  of  results,  the  beginning  of 
a  harvest  to  which  former  sowing  and  growth  have  led  up. 

If  results  could  show  that  a  finite  person  and  commu- 
nities of  finite  persons  realize  a  higher  and  better  deter- 
mination by  selfish  devotement  than  they  can  by 
supreme  devotion  to  that  true,  that  ideal  life  which  is 
implicit  in  their  natural  conditions,  then  selfishness 
might  win  for  itself  a  valid  right  to  exist  as  the  supreme 
devotement  of  personal  being ;  win  a  valid  standing  as 
self-determining  action ;  and  become  a  self-conscious 
excellence. 

But  since  selfishness  in  even  its  greatest  prosperity 
fails  of  self-conscious  excellence,  the  universe  is  without 
the  consciousness  that  evil  has  a  right  to  exist. 


240  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

This  has  become  more  definite  as  society  has  pro- 
gressed. Further,  since  selfish  action  increases  the 
limitations  of  dependent  persons  and  decreases  the 
scope  and  power  of  their  self-determination,  thereby  re- 
ducing their  freedom  and  sinking  them  toward  complete 
dependence  ;  since  it  despoils  them  of  susceptibility  to 
progressive  motives,  sinks  them  in  degrading  affections 
and  desires,  rendering  them  mutually  destructive  in  their 
ambition  ;  since  it  reduces  individuals  and  communities 
to  conditions  in  which  existence  is  but  a  doubtful  good, 
or  positively  worse  than  non-being ;  since,  in  a  word,  it 
proves  only  degrading  and  disastrous,  it  is  not  only  a 
self-conscious  failure  and  must  perish,  but  a  self-con- 
scious crime,  a  universal  outlaw,  and  deserves  to  perish. 
The  magnitude  of  the  interests  which  it  thwarts  and  of 
the  motives  against  which  it  offends,  render  it  conscious 
of  the  degree  of  its  turpitude. 

This  is  the  true  "  survival  of  the  fittest/'  —  a  survival 
which  illustrates  that  love,  perfect  action,  is  the  fittest ; 
that  it  is  self-persistent  and  must  survive  evermore  ;  and 
that  its  qualities,  holiness,  or  pure  intention,  truth,  and 
righteousness,  constitute  the  fittest  personal  character  ; 
and  each  crisis  but  illustrates  the  faith  which  cancels 
selfishness,  and  trusts  love  and  its  qualities  to  realize  the 
highest  good  because  they  are,  in  themselves,  the  fittest. 
The  "  survival  of  the  fittest  "  is  only  another  phrasing  of 
what  the  sacred  Scriptures  term  "  the  judgment." 
Either  phrasing  embraces,  essentially,  three  ideas  :  crisis, 
criterion,  and  retribution,  or  change  of  conditions. 
Judgment  necessarily  implies  authority,  — natural,  basal, 
intrinsic  authority  ;  and  this  is  the  authority  of  an  inde- 
pendent criterion.  It  is  independent,  not  because  of 
power  to  destroy,  but  because  of  its  power  to  be  perfect, 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL. 


24: 


because  of  qualitative  perfection.  It  is  authoritative  be- 
cause perfect,  fittest  because  of  perfect  quality,  of  perfect 
quality  because  it  is  perfect  action,  perfectly  adjusted 
being.  It  cannot  be  affirmed  the  fittest  because  it  pro- 
duces the  greatest  possible  good  or  pleasure,  as  the  utili- 
tarian or  agnostic  would  say.  None  but  the  infinite  mind 
perceives  what  can  produce  the  greatest  possible  good 
or  pleasure.  With  finite  minds  this  is  altogether  a  matter 
of  inference  and  faith.  It  is  faith  in  God,  as  perfection, 
which  leads  the  faithful  man  to  expect  that  love  will  yield 
the  highest  possible  good.  The  proof  of  his  faith  he 
finds,  not  in  grasping  a  knowledge  of  the  highest  good, 
but  in  the  effect  of  faith  upon  his  inner  life,  affording  per- 
fection of  intention,  and  progress  in  self-determination. 
And  now,  in  the  final  crisis  of  a  community  which  em- 
braces earth's  entire  population,  the  wreck  of  evil  society 
again  demonstrates  that  selfishness  is  not  only  not  the 
fittest,  but  that  it  is  wholly  unfit  to  exist,  and  hence  never 
had  a  right  to  exist.  And  at  the  same  time  it  is  demon- 
strated that  of  all  the  forces  and  qualities  ever  known  to 
man,  love,  based  on  faith  in  God,  as  the  perfect,  is  self- 
persistent,  self-progressive,  self-perfecting.  It  actualizes 
the  ideal  community. 

Thus,  on  the  earth,  motivity  to  selfishness  will  be  ulti- 
mately abolished.  Human  love,  purified  and  exalted 
upon  the  basis  of  faith  in  God,  will  have  developed  the 
ideal  community  for  this  earth.  Faithful  society  in  its 
progress  will  more  keenly  apprehend,  more  strikingly 
perceive  and  interact  with  the  activities  of  God's  all- 
conditioning  love.  With  this  will  have  been  regained 
the  true  and  highest  use  of  their  environment.  No  mo- 
tivity to  evil  can  survive  this  solution.  No  motive, 
nothing  but  obdurate  aversion  to  holiness,  fixed  unsus- 
16 


2 42  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

ceptibility  to  truth  and  right,  self-determined  limitation 
to  selfish  motives,  can  remain  as  incitement  to  evil. 
This  does  not  necessarily  imply  that  the  whole  mass, 
or  even  a  large  proportion,  of  earthly  society  will  have 
become  faithful.  The  implication  is  that  such  will  have 
been  the  progress  determined  upon  these  opposite  lines, 
love  and  selfishness,  that  however  large  or  small  their 
numbers,  the  respective  parties  will  have  become  so 
widely  differentiated  that  the  excellence  of  one  and  the 
worthlessness  and  turpitude  of  the  other  will  strip  sel- 
fishness of  all  motivity,  and  hence  of  all  power  to  tempt 
the  innocent  and  ignorant.  Those  who  maintain  evil 
society  must  do  so  upon  no  pretence  but  incorrigible 
aversion  to  love  and  devotion  to  selfishness.  Hence 
their  retribution  must  ensue. 

The  breaking-up  of  selfish  society  must  naturally 
result.  Selfishness,  now  all-dominating,  openly  pro- 
nounced and  socially  isolated,  its  followers  must  be 
without  the  restraints  of  good  society  among  themselves, 
but  like  a  den  of  beasts  or  fiends  are  left  to  mutual 
degradation  and  destruction. 

Further,  supernatural  conditions  may  now  develop 
their  full  force.  This  final  divergence  of  society  will 
have  been  reached  upon  the  basis  of  supernatural  con- 
ditions which  have  supplemented  or  republished  the 
data  of  faith  by  the  Christ-revelation  of  the  facts,  —  the 
being,  the  independent  supremacy,  the  holiness,  and  the 
benevolence  of  God.  These  conditions  have  been  abused 
and  perverted  to  the  ends  of  this  final  incorrigibility. 
Hence  we  are  carried  by  ontological  implication  to  the 
fulfilment  of  the  seer's  vision  of  the  explicit  immanence 
or  perceivable  presence  of  the  Christ,  the  glory  of  whose 
coming  shall  consume  the  wicked. 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2^ 

Although  human  perversions  had  dimmed  these  data 
of  faith  as  naturally  revealed  in  the  human  conscious- 
ness of  dependent  life,  reason,  conscience,  and  will, 
they  have  been  re-established  supernaturally  "  as  a  wit- 
ness unto  all  nations ;  "  and  now  in  the  culmination  of 
their  full  development  they  constitute  the  forces  which 
are  as  necessarily  retributive  to  selfish  society  as  the 
white  heat  of  the  refiner's  furnace  is  resolvent  to  reject 
and  cast  out  the  dross. 

This  is  the  final  revolution  of  social  conditions,  the 
final  disaster  to  organized  selfishness  among  men.  In- 
dividual defection  may  possibly  arise  among  men  after 
this  revolution  which  leaves  all  social  organization  har- 
monious and  morally  pure.  But  the  social  conditions 
upon  which  such  defection  shall  arise  must  imply  that 
it  will  soon  run  its  course  and  doubly  emphasize  the 
failure  and  crime  of  selfishness.  Thus  upon  the  social 
conditions  afforded  by  divine  love,  self-limitation  and 
self- defeat  will  rid  the  earth  of  selfish  society. 

(c)  Individual  retribution,  like  racial  and  social,  is 
simply  a  revolution  of  personal  conditions  brought 
about  by  individual  use  or  abuse  of  those  conditions. 
It  is  not  to  be  thought  as  a  resentful  infliction  which 
God  may  arbitrarily  impose  or  withhold,  but  as  a  result 
which  must  be  implied  in  a  collision  with  love,  the 
nature  of  the  all-conditioning  God. 

The  decay  and  disaster  which  befall  families,  peoples, 
nations,  and  the  race,  as  such,  do  not  involve,  necessa- 
rily, the  personal  retribution  of  individuals,  except  to  the 
extent  of  their  relations  to  these  collective  bodies. 
Many  innocent  and  many  positively  righteous  individ- 
uals, such  as  children,  parents,  creditors,  or  citizens, 
suffer  in  the  wreck  of  those  collective  relations,  but  not 


244  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

in  the  fortunes  of  individual  character.  Many  noble 
lives  are  burdened  and  physically  and  mentally  limited 
by  the  abuses  of  former  generations,  but  individual 
faith  or  a  pure  intention  is  not  thereby  prevented.  Yet 
the  decay  or  overthrow  of  collective  associations  illus- 
trates the  same  principle  which  must  obtain  in  the  indi- 
vidual relation  to  all-conditioning  love.  The  downfall 
of  Rome,  "  childless  and  crownless  in  her  voiceless 
woe,"  and  the  despair  of  the  pleasure-seeker,  the  infidel 
scoffer,  or  the  man  of  either  crude  or  cultured  selfish- 
ness, alike  incapable  of  faith,  are  subject  to  the  same 
retributive  principle.  The  main  difference  between 
man's  retribution  in  his  collective  capacities  and  that  of 
individual  concern  is  that  the  dissolution  of  collective 
organizations,  as  such,  is  the  end  of  their  collective 
self-determination,  and  hence  concludes  their  retribu- 
tion ;  while  individuals  retain  their  self-determining 
power  in  the  midst  of  social  and  even  physical  dissolu- 
tion. Either  they  are  capable  of  a  yet  unrealized  ideal 
life,  or  their  selfishness  is  not  yet  satisfied  or  repented. 
Hence  the  change  of  their  racial  or  social  conditions  is 
not  an  interruption  of  their  personal  being. 

A  future  state  of  individual  relation  to  God  and  the 
universe  persists  in  our  thought.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
elaborate  an  argument  here  on  a  future  state.  For  of 
course  if  there  be  no  future  life  for  man  our  solution 
of  evil  is  complete  with  racial  and  social  retribution. 
Many  reasons,  aside  from  revelation,  have  been  given 
for  belief  in  a  future  state,  but  usually  the  essential  rea- 
son is  overlooked.     It  is  as  follows  :  — 

Love  implies  a  future  state  for  persons.  We  readily 
see  that  when  the  Creator  posits  the  existence  of  a  per- 
son he  conditions  a  self-determining  power,  and  commits 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  245 

himself  in  honor  and  truth  to  the  maintenance  of  these 
conditions  as  long  as  that  self-determination  exists.  And 
although  this  self-determining  being  may  revolutionize 
those  conditions  in  relation  to  himself  and  render  them 
retributive,  they  must  continue  as  long  as  he  can  deter- 
mine their  use  or  abuse.  Since  from  the  beginning  of 
man's  sinful  self-determination  love's  conditioning  action 
has  been  placed  at  his  service  it  cannot  be  withdrawn 
while  he  entertains  a  self-determining  purpose  concerning 
it.  He  must  upon  these  conditions  be  permitted  to  work 
out  that  purpose  so  long  as  he  is  conscious  of  it.  We 
say  "  must "  for  the  reason  that  creative  love  cannot  be 
thought  to  draw  back  from  any  possible  result  to  which 
it  is  committed  by  the  original  choice  to  condition  the 
existence  of  persons.  Love's  conditioning  action  is  put 
into  their  hands  by  virtue  of  affording  them  personality ; 
and  hence  their  self-determination  must  be  permitted  to 
work  out  its  purpose.  By  creating  free  beings  love  sub- 
mitted to  their  proof  of  its  possible  worst  as  well  as  its 
possible  best.  If,  in  the  lowest  depths  of  self-degrada- 
tion, a  dependent  person  can  develop  aught  which  im- 
peaches love's  purity,  truth,  or  goodness,  aught  which 
indorses  or  connives  at  selfishness  or  wrong,  aught  of 
essential  imperfection,  then  love  is  impeached  through- 
out. Its  right  to  create  or  morally  dominate  a  universe 
is  fairly  disputed,  its  morally  authoritative  basis  for  per- 
sonal determination  is  exploded ;  and  selfishness  has 
gained  standing-ground  as  a  principle  upon  which  per- 
sonal character  may  be  rightfully  determined.  To  cre- 
ate beings  of  conditioned  self-determination  implies  the 
continuance  of  the  conditions  as  long  as  that  determina- 
tion is  self-conscious,  whether  it  be  in  moral  harmony 
or  disharmony  with  the  conditioning  action.     The  same 


246  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

principles  upon  which  the  evolution  of  love  conditions 
the  continuance  of  a  race  of  self-determining  sinners  in 
this  life  are  those  upon  which  it  must  continue  to  con- 
dition their  sinful  self-determination,  notwithstanding 
physical  dissolution. 

Moreover,  in  the  case  of  the  faithful,  physical  dissolu- 
tion finds  them  in  essential  harmony  with  divine  love 
and  in  process  of  progressive  self-determination.  In 
many  cases,  too,  their  conscious  steadfastness  in  love 
and  aversion  to  evil  have  been  achieved.  Such  has 
been  the  trial  of  their  faith  that  subjection  of  the  actual 
to  the  ideal  life  has  become  habitual  with  them  long 
before  death ;  it  has  been  the  high  standpoint  from 
which  they  have  performed  their  duties  and  endured 
their  ills.  One  who  could  say  of  his  actual  life,  "  One 
thing  I  do,  forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind,  and 
stretching  forward  to  the  things  which  are  before,  I  press 
on  toward  the  goal,  unto  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of 
God,"  is  entirely  philosophic  when,  summoned  to  exe- 
cution, he  says  :  "  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a 
crown  of  righteousness."  The  confidence  of  Socrates 
was  not  a  mere  fancy,  but  the  conscious  persistence  of 
a  life  of  devotion  to  the  ideal,  which  led  him  to  say  to 
his  weeping  friends,  "  You  may  dispose  of  my  body  as 
you  like,  but  I  shall  be  with  the  gods."  The  divine 
philosophy,  as  expressed  in  view  of  persecution  for 
righteousness'  sake,  is,  "  He  that  hateth  his  life  in  this 
world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal." 

We  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter  that  the  self-deter- 
mined freedom,  harmony,  and  security  of  the  universe 
are  the  essential  qualities  of  its  perfection  and  the  con- 
ditions to  the  highest  good  which  love  can  evolve. 
Hence  the  persons  who  in  this  life  have  achieved  these 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  247 

qualities,  or  are  in  a  way  to  determine  them,  are  among 
the  agents  who  alone  can  actually  accomplish  the  pur- 
pose of  the  universe.  Personality  which  has  attained 
these  qualities,  or  is  in  an  attitude  to  attain  them,  and 
has,  by  physical  death,  cast  off  the  physical  heritage  of 
racial  abuses,  has  simply  gained  the  starting-point  for 
untrammelled  personal  progress.  And  so  long  as  the 
innocent  and  the  faithful  who  must  determine  the  uni- 
verse can  amplify  their  personal  being,  can  determine 
a  higher  development,  can  aspire  to  a  yet  unrealized 
ideal  self  or  attain  a  higher  good,  love,  the  nature  of 
that  action  which  conditions  their  being,  implies  their 
immortality.  This  is  but  the  process  of  realizing  the 
divine  altruism ;  which,  being  based  upon  the  perfect 
altruistic  freedom  of  God,  is  the  limitless  measure  of 
universal  good. 

At  what  time  in  an  individual  career  conscious  self- 
determination  may  first  arise,  it  is  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible to  detect.  But  when  it  does  arise  it  is  the 
beginning  of  the  individual  use  of  one's  personal  nature, 
the  actual  discrimination  of  individual  from  racial  life. 
There  are  times  when  the  farmer  says  he  can  "  almost 
see  the  corn  growing,"  but  there  are  processes  of  growth 
which  even  the  microscope  cannot  detect.  So  also 
we  can  definitely  observe  evidences  of  conscious  self- 
determination  in  infants,  but  this  cannot  be  assumed 
to  indicate  their  earliest  conscious  individuality  or  will. 
Preceding  this  rise  of  self-determination  the  infant  can- 
not be  thought  to  have  developed  any  but  racial  life. 
Not  having  exerted  an  act  of  self-determination,  it  does 
not  become  conscious  of  individual  identity,  or  selfhood. 
Hence,  should  physical  death  take  place,  which  is  simply 
a  form  of  racial  retribution,  a  catastrophe  to  race  con- 


248  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

ditions,  it  suffers  no  individual  retribution.  Indeed,  we 
know  of  no  implication  or  datura,  of  any  kind,  upon 
which  we  can  say  that  such  infancy  can  survive  physical 
death,  can  live  in  a  future  state. 

After  self-determining  action  is  once  begun,  however 
faintly,  the  personal  nature  is  individualized,  and  indi- 
vidual self-consciousness  takes  its  rise,  and  retains  per- 
sonal identity  through  all  subsequent  changes  ;  until,  by 
self-determined  abuse  of  the  personal  nature  it  may  be 
sunken  in  complete  self-limitation  and  ultimately  lost. 
The  rise  and  earlier  development  of  personality  is  doubt- 
less in  accordance  with  circumstances  and  instinctive  im- 
pulses, and  trusts  its  conditions  with  entire  sincerity.  This 
is  the  faith  of  childhood  ;  and  it  maintains  the  innocence 
of  childhood,  although  the  circumstances  and  impulses 
upon  which  it  acts  may  have  been  depraved  by  ancestry 
and  social  factors.  Its  debased  racial  conditions  npay 
impose  upon  it  disease,  feebleness,  defective  physical 
organization,  or  death ;  and  social  surroundings  may 
afford  it  little  but  villanous  incitements.  Yet  the  im- 
plicit sincerity  with  which  it  personally  acts  in  accordance 
with  these  conditions  is  an  innocent,  yes,  virtuous,  use 
of  its  personal  nature,  and  determines  its  character  as 
one  of  innocent  and  virtuous  intention.  Not  until  it  is 
sufficiently  advanced  to  deliberately  and  of  purpose 
reject  pure  intention  and  adopt  selfish  intention  does  it 
abuse  its  personal  conditions  or  form  corrupt  character. 
Hence,  if  retribution  in  its  racial  or  social  conditions 
overtake  it  while  in  this  character  of  individual  inno- 
cence, it  must  be  thought  to  persist  in  a  future  state  as 
an  innocent  person  of  morally  pure  intention.  It  takes 
rank  with  that  class  of  beings  whose  further  develop- 
ment will  be  in  the  absence  of  temptation,  who  "  do 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2^g 

always  behold  the  face  of  God,  "  who  must  depend  upon 
environment  for  consciousness  of  moral  security  until  it 
is  acquired  by  association  with  those  whose  conscious 
security  has  been  sell-determined  "  through  much 
tribulation." 

When  a  child  is  sufficiently  advanced  in  a  knowledge 
of  his  conditions  to  recognize  the  moral  criterion  of 
intentions  in  conscience,  he  may  then  have  a  self- 
conscious  faith;  he  may  then  determine  to  subject  him- 
self to  what  he  understands  to  be  true ;  and  may  feel,  as 
a  result,  that  this  faith  purifies  or  keeps  pure  his  inten- 
tions as  he  advances  upon  an  ever-widening  scope  of 
self-determination.  Although  he  may  not  grasp  a  logi- 
cal definition  of  faith,  yet  just  as  surely  does  he  enact 
"  the  subjection  of  the  actual  to  the  ideal ;  "  and  just  as 
surely  does  he  cancel  selfishness  and  lovingly  determine 
himself  toward  spiritual  harmony,  freedom,  and  security. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  child  at  this  stage  of  personal 
advancement  may  begin  a  deliberate  rejection  of 
conscience  and  faith  ;  and  in  case  death  intervenes,  his 
appearance  in  a  future  state  must  be  thought  that  of 
a  person  suffering  individual  retribution.  His  conscious- 
ness of  the  magnitude  of  his  motives  to  good,  which  he 
has  rejected,  must  be  the  measure  of  his  retribution. 

In  adults,  individual  persistence  in  a  selfish  life  may 
be,  in  many  cases,  but  an  idle  or  undiscriminating 
drifting  with  circumstances.  And  it  may  thus  take  the 
form  of  a  merely  racial  life  or  result  in  the  ultimate 
sinking  of  personal  consciousness  into  the  helpless 
dependence  of  a  mere  thing.  This  view  assumes  that 
there  are  persons  who  are  so  entirely  content  with  the 
bare  satisfaction  of  physical  needs,  and  whose  interest 
in  existence  is  so  far  below  the  normal  aspirations  of  a 


250 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


child  that  they  fail  to  discriminate  themselves  as  other 
than  parts  of  a  common  herd.  They  live  and  die  with- 
out reflection  as  to  any  definite  purpose  of  individual 
life  or  destiny.  This  may  be  largely  owing  to  circum- 
stances and  their  weakness  to  rise  above  circumstances, 
even  to  the  extent  of  asserting  individual  responsibility 
of  any  kind  or  degree.  Though  they  may  have  felt  at 
some  time  the  assertion  of  conscience,  yet  this  has 
been  so  habitually  yielded  to  the  behest  of  circum- 
stances that  it  is  practically  swamped. 

The  consciousness  of  guilt  in  such  persons  must  be 
very  faint,  and  the  consciousness  of  moral  sincerity 
equally  indefinite.  They  seem  conscious  of  nothing 
which  could  be  termed  self-determination  except  a 
weak  surrender  to  natural  impulse  as  dominated  by 
circumstances.  Personality  is  surrendered  during  racial 
life ;  and  racial  life  yielded  in  physical  death.  The 
opportunity  of  personal  determination,  like  the  talent 
hid  in  the  ground,  is  soon  taken  away  and  they  perish. 

If  one  live  merely  a  racial  life  he  lives  only  as  a  brute 
lives,  and  his  may  be  termed  a  brute  life.  The  essen- 
tial difference  between  brute  life  and  personal  life  is 
that  a  brute  lives  for  its  nature,  a  person  lives  for  a 
mode  of  life  which  he  can  build  upon  his  nature ;  using 
his  nature  as  means  and  conditions  by  which  to  deter- 
mine its  qualities.  The  sum  of  these  qualities  is  char- 
acter. By  persistence  in  this  action  he  fixes  his 
character,  or  quality,  of  life  upon  so  much  of  his  nature 
as  does  not  perish  in  the  using.  This  modified  nature 
becomes  the  means  for  the  further  development  of 
character ;  and  thus,  eventually,  self-determination  may 
realize  perfect  conditioned  personality.  Brute  life  is 
living  for  his  nature,  to  follow  its  impulses  and  make 


THE   SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  25 1 

the  satisfaction  of  its  desires  the  object  of  life.  While 
this  is,  perhaps,  the  most  crude  form  of  incorrigible 
selfishness  it  is  readily  eliminated  by  self-limitation  and 
self-defeat. 

There  are  other  classes  of  persons  whose  selfishness 
is  a  living  for  their  nature  in  its  intellectually  higher 
and  more  ambitious  propensions.  Nevertheless,  they 
live  for  their  nature  as  an  end,  ignoring  that  it  is  but 
the  means  for  a  higher  type  of  life  which  they  may 
superadd,  and  into  which  all  of  their  nature  which  does 
not  perish  with  the  using  should  be  incorporated. 
Many  of  this  class  give  a  quasi  recognition  to  the  facts 
disclosed  in  their  natures,  and  which  afford  a  basis  for 
faith,  —  such  as  the  perceived  facts  of  being  and  de- 
pendence, and  the  implied  fact  of  the  independent, 
which  we  cannot  get  rid  of,  and  also  self-love,  reason, 
and  conscience.  They  harbor  also  an  expectation  to 
act,  sometime,  in  accordance  with  these  data  of  faith. 
But  living  in  present  neglect  of  the  great  object  of 
personal  life,  they  devote  themselves  to  the  immediate 
satisfactions  of  natural  appetite,  passion,  and  propension. 
Though  they  may  be  highly  intelligent  and  often  pos- 
sess great  will-force,  their  life  is  only  a  highly  endowed 
animalism.  This  for  the  reason  that  they  are  devoted 
to  the  satisfying  of  their  present  selves,  and  are  rejecting 
the  true,  the  ideal  self  which  their  reason  and  con- 
science tell  them  they  ought  to  actualize.  Their  char- 
acter is  deliberately  self-determined  selfishness  ;  and, 
consequently,  the  intervention  of  physical  death  re- 
moves them  hence  with  characters  of  uncorrected  sin. 
Dying  without  having  actualized  their  "  quasi  expecta- 
tion "  to  "sometime,"  as  a  matter  of  convenience,  turn 
to  repentance  and  faith,  they  must  be  thought  to  have 


252  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

entered  upon  a  future  state  of  retribution.  Obdurately 
impenitent  while  enjoying  immunity  from  retribution, 
their  quasi  intention  to  sometime  reform  for  conveni- 
ence' sake  is  only  a  selfish  forecast  which  can  never  be 
capable  of  faith.  It  is  simply  a  form  of  moral 
incorrigibility. 

Incorrigible  selfishness  definitely  purposed  is  brought 
about  by  habitually  putting  aside  the  authority  of  con- 
science, diverting  the  attention  from  it,  and  thus  deter- 
mining fixed  unsusceptibility  to  motives  of  faith  and 
love.  The  person  who  can  choose  to  continue  in 
selfishness  at  any  stage  or  reject  love  in  any  degree  of 
its  incentives,  is  capable  of  persisting  also  in  his 
choice  of  selfishness,  and  rejecting  love  at  that  stage 
when  he  knows  that  the  one  is  wholly  false  and  the 
other  true.  This  is  total,  moral  incorrigibility,  the 
total  abuse  of  his  conditions.  Thus  continuance  in 
sin  until  the  incorrigible  stage  is  reached  is  clearly 
practicable. 

Prior  to  this,  even  when  the  false  tendency  of  sin  and 
the  true  tendency  of  love  are  perceived,  he  must 
abandon  the  one  and  adopt  the  other,  or  else  must 
deliberately  choose  antagonism  to  love.  Persistence  in 
this  choice  determines  his  perversion  of  the  conditions 
of  individual  faith  and  must  establish  in  his  nature  a 
fixed  aversion  to  love.  If,  in  the  experience  or  observa- 
tion of  any  individual,  community,  or  age,  fixed  indif- 
ference to  the  moral  behest  of  love  has  been  reached, 
there  can  be  no  motivity  to  their  self-determination, 
except  the  desire  of  selfish  satisfaction. 

This  indifference  is  wholly  a  matter  of  purposed, 
practical  infidelity,  — infidelity  to  the  true,  and  positive 
aversion  to    holiness  and  God.     To  this  aversion  the 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  2c* 

undeviating  activities  of  love  which  condition  him  must 
be  a  constant  offence ;  and  in  changed  circumstances, 
when  he  can  no  longer  make  all-conditioning  love  serve 
his  selfishness,  it  must  be  to  him  torture. 

Selfishness,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  self-love  in  dero- 
gation of  self-perfection  and  the  perfection  of  others, 
finds  its  supreme  object  of  aversion  in  God.  Nor  can 
such  a  person  repent  his  selfishness  from  any  other  mo- 
tive than  its  unpleasurable  results ;  and  this,  of  course, 
is  not  moral  repentance  at  all,  has  in  it  no  moral  contri- 
tion, has  no  motive  but  selfishness.  That  a  person  thus 
selfishly  determined  will  regret  his  disaster  cannot  be 
doubted,  but  selfish  motivity  to  this  regret  can  never 
work  moral  purifying.     He  is  still  morally  incorrigible. 

Previous  to  a  retributive  change  of  conditions  selfish 
motives  may  be  appealed  to  for  the  purpose  of  arousing 
attention  to  the  moral  enormity  of  sin.  This  is  possible 
so  long  as  the  authority  of  conscience  is  not  discarded, 
and  may  incite  to  genuine  repentance.  But  to  a  person 
in  whom  selfishness  has  reached  the  point  of  self- 
determined  indifference  to  the  data  of  faith,  especially 
the  demand  of  conscience,  there  can  be  no  remedial  or 
recovering  conditions. 

Future  Pj-obation.  —  The  question  arises  at  this  point 
whether  persons,  after  having,  by  physical  death,  under- 
gone racial  retribution,  must,  by  necessary  implication 
of  love,  find  themselves  subject  to  individual  retri- 
bution. Or  may  they  not  continue  in  probationary 
conditions,  individually,  notwithstanding  physical  death 
has  removed  them  from  the  racial  and  social  conditions 
of  this  life  ?  Or,  again,  may  all-conditioning  love  imply 
individual  probation  in  a  future   state  ? 

The  answer  to  this  question  cannot  include  the  case 


54 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


of  children  or  multitudes  of  adults,  who,  innocent  of  self- 
determined  rejection  of  love,  have  passed  into  a  future 
life  of  development  in  the  "  presence  of  God."  Doubt- 
less these  will  occupy  conditions  to  development,  but 
not  in  a  sense  that  implies  the  moral  possibility  of  failure 
or  defection.  Their  conditions  will  be  those  of  over- 
whelming motives  to  love  and  entire  absence  of  tempta- 
tion to  evil,  because  associated  with  the  innocent  and 
the  faithful,  and  freed  from  corrupt  racial  and  social 
conditions.  But  such  conditions  will  afford  no  proving 
by  self-determined  conquest  of  their  natural  susceptibility 
to  selfishness  ;  nor  can  such  conditions  yield  a  con- 
sciousness of  moral  security  as  against  supposable  temp- 
tation to  sin,  except  as  such  consciousness  may  be 
eventually  acquired  by  association  with  those  who  have 
through  discipline  of  evil  determined  their  own  security. 
It  has  been  urged  :  If  the  children  go  to  the  "  pres- 
ence of  God"  directly,  why  does  not  God  have  them  all 
die,  and  thus  end  human  propagation  in  the  sinful  con- 
ditions of  this  life  ?  This  is  equivalent  to  asking  :  Why 
have  a  human  race  at  all?  The  answer  to  all  this  is : 
The  evolution  of  that  ultimate  security  in  personal 
harmony  and  freedom  which  is  essential  to  the  perfection 
of  the  universe  can  be  attained  only  by  the  develop- 
ment of  an  unsusceptibility  to  selfishness  by  the  determi- 
nation of  finite  persons  themselves.  The  self-elimination 
of  one's  susceptibility  to  evil  is  requisite  to  a  perfect 
personality,  and  hence  to  the  perfect  universe.  Ab- 
sence of  temptations  or  incitements  to  evil  may  secure 
the  harmony  of  innocent  or  unfallen  beings,  but  it  can- 
not develop  the  highest  order  of  moral  character,  for  the 
reason  that  susceptibility  to  evil  temptation  may  remain 
in  them ;  at  least,  they  can  have   no  consciousness  of 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL. 


255 


perfect  security  in  themselves,  as  against  possible  temp- 
tation. To  this  class  of  persons  may  belong  angels 
who  have  ever  "  kept  their  first  estate, "  and  children 
who  die  and  enter  upon  association  with  angels,  who 
"  always  behold  the  face  of  God,"  before  they  have 
consciously  renounced  their  sense  of  dependence  and 
rejected  the  authority  of  conscience.  But  these  alone, 
and  in  these  conditions,  can  never  realize  a  perfect  finite 
being  or  universe.  Perfect  harmony  of  persons  can  be 
realized  only  by  beings  of  perfect  moral  freedom ;  and 
perfect  moral  freedom  can  be  realized  only  in  conscious- 
ness of  perfect  moral  security ;  and  this  security  can 
be  realized  only  by  the  self-elimination  or  neutralization 
of  personal  susceptibility  to  selfishness ;  and  this  sus- 
ceptibility can  be  eliminated  only  by  the  person  himself 
in  confirmed  faith  and  love. 

Angels,  infants,  and  innocent  heathen  may  see  and 
associate  with  the  faithful  who  have  determined  their 
own  security,  and  may  thus  themselves  ultimately  attain 
to  a  like  security.  This  is  not  probation,  however,  but 
is  only  their  development  into  this  unsusceptibility  by 
observation  and  association  and  sympathy  with  the 
faithful,  who  constitute  the  nucleus  and  main  body  of 
the  perfect  universe  by  having  determined  their  own 
conscious  security  against  selfishness. 

But  we  return  to  the  question  :  Is  a  future  state 
necessarily  one  of  individual  retribution?  That  retribu- 
tion is  a  revolutionary  change  of  conditions,  we  have 
already  seen.  That  physical  death  is  such  a  change, 
not  only  of  race  conditions  but  also  of  social  and  indi- 
vidual environment,  must  be  admitted.  Now,  must  pas- 
sage into  a  future  state  imply  a  loss  of  all  conditions  to 
personal  correction  and  recovery  to  the  individual  who 


256 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


has  been  unrepentant  or  incorrigible  in  this  life  ?  We 
do  not  aim  here  to  give  an  extended  argument ;  es- 
pecially is  it  aside  from  the  method  of  this  work  to  invoke 
Scriptural  exposition.  Our  answer  must  aim  to  give  the 
implications  of  love  which,  at  this  stage  of  its  evolution, 
are  decisive  of  the  question. 

We  have  seen  that  love,  in  creating  dependent  per- 
sons, requires  that  the  rise  of  their  personality  must  be 
conditioned  at  the  lowest  point  at  which  progressive 
self-determination  is  possible.  Now.  if  this  racial  and 
social  life  affords  the  lowest  and  easiest  conditions  which 
all-conditioning  love  can  posit  for  the  rise,  progress,  and 
perfection  of  finite  persons,  then  the  debasement  of  in- 
dividual life  in  these  conditions  must  be  thought  such 
a  debasement  as  to  be  totally  unsusceptible  to  any  con- 
ditions to  personal  improvement  which  love  can  ever 
afford.  To  those  who  have  perverted  and  debased 
these  lowest  conditions  of  personal  development  physi- 
cal death  must  be  thought  a  change  which  renders  them 
conscious  of  conditions  more  desperate  and  hopeless. 
By  no  line  of  reasoning  can  we  conclude  that  the  abuse 
of  our  present  nature  can  result  in  an  improved,  more 
susceptible,  future  nature.  And  if  individuals  continue 
to  debase  these  conditions  which  are  most  favorable  to 
progressive  motives,  perverting  them  from  the  moral 
susceptibility  of  childhood  innocence  to  self-determined 
depravity,  death  must  be  to  them  a  change  to  a  rad- 
ical and  hopeless  maladjustment  toward  love  and  God. 

The  present  bodily  conditions  must  be  thought  requi- 
site means  by  which  man  begins  and  in  this  life  con- 
tinues his  personal  interaction  with  divine  love,  whether 
that  love  be  naturally  or  supernaturally  disclosed.  By 
these  means  he  is  able  to  enter  upon  the  lowest  condi- 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL. 


257 


tions  of  faith ;  and,  upon  faith,  he  becomes  able  to  love 
God  and  determines  himself  in  harmony  with  God.  If 
physical  death  takes  place  at  any  point  in  the  process 
of  this  innocent  or  faithful  self-determination  he  con- 
tinues in  harmonious  interaction  with  God,  notwithstand- 
ing the  falling  away  of  bodily  conditions.  He  must  be 
classed  with  disembodied  persons  who  are  in  either  in- 
nocent or  faithful  harmony  with  love  in  the  future  state. 
But  if,  while  in  these  bodily  conditions,  he  has  deter- 
mined himself  selfishly  he  must  be  thought  as  not  only 
out  of  harmony  with  love,  but  as  morally  below  the 
lowest  form  of  faith.  As  long  as  he  is  in  possession  of 
bodily  conditions  he  has  contact  with  the  means  of  cor- 
rection and  recovery  to  the  lowest  stage  of  faith ;  and 
may  begin  again  the  process  of  faithful  self-determina- 
tion. But,  if  physical  death  supervenes  when,  by  sel- 
fishness, he  is  sunken  to  the  lowest  point  at  which  faith 
may  arise,  he  is  left  without  means  or  conditions  of  cor- 
rection and  recovery  to  the  lowest  form  of  faith.  He 
must  be  thought  a  disembodied  person  to  whom  faith 
is  out  of  reach ;  hence,  incapable  of  corrective  chastise- 
ment and  harmonization  with  love.  If  the  lowest  form 
of  progressive  interaction  with  divine  love,  in  this  life, 
requires  these  bodily  conditions,  certainly  a  lower  form 
cannot  be  posited  without  them.  There  is  no  need  of 
talking  about  any  means  of  moral  purifying  or  develop- 
ment other  than  faith ;  and  if  the  lowest  forms  of  faith 
can  arise  only  upon  those  conditions  which  divine  love 
affords  as  the  lowest  upon  which  personal  determination 
may  arise,  it  is  clear  that  the  lowest  forms  of  faith  are 
impossible  without  those  conditions.  And  it  is  exactly 
those  conditions  which  physical  death  removes.  As 
long  as  he  is  in  this  body,  aided  by  its  needs  and  its 

17 


258  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

racial  and  social  sympathies  of  faith  and  love,  as  also  by 
the  direct  incarnation  of  divine  love  in  Christ,  he  has 
contact  with  the  conditions  to  spiritual  recovery.  But, 
disembodied,  this  bridge  between  his  self-degraded  spirit 
and  the  conditions  to  faith  and  love  is  gone. 

"  But  if  a  supernatural  intervention,  as  in  Christ, 
avails  to  give  renewed  conditions  of  faith  to  depraved 
men  in  this  life,  may  not  love  imply  further  supernat- 
ural revelations  which  may  in  a  future  world  condi- 
tion saving  faith  to  those,  at  least,  who  have  died 
unrepentant?" 

This  plausible  question  is  neutralized  by  the  following 
considerations,  namely :  It  is  based  upon  a  miscon- 
ception of  the  Christ  revelation ;  which  sought,  not  the 
obdurate,  but  the  ignorant  and  degraded.  Secondly, 
he  who  has  determined  positive  aversion  to  faith  in 
himself  has  no  susceptibility  which  any  revelation  can 
incite  to  spiritual  reform.  When,  by  racial  defilement 
and  social  perversion  the  natural  motives  to  individual 
faith  have  been  obscured  from  those  who  are  yet  suscep- 
tible, supernatural  interposition  reiterates  them.  These 
motives  to  faith,  always  implicit  in  man's  nature,  are  the 
grounds  upon  which  mankind  always  praise  or  blame 
each  other.  They  are  never  replaced  as  motives  to 
moral  purifying.  No  supposed  revelation  which  ignores 
them  can  make  good  its  claim  to  divine  origin.  What 
were  the  ancient  disclosures  of  Jehovah,  the  indepen- 
dent, holy  and  gracious,  or  guiding  the  retributive  storm 
of  abuse  and  revolutionized  conditions,  but  the  reiteration 
of  these  data  of  faith  ?  What  were  the  words  and  works  of 
Christ,  but  reminders  of  the  dependence  of  man  and  the 
independence  of  truth,  moral  authority,  and  merciful 
solicitude  of  God?     All  supernatural  revelation  has  its 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL. 


259 


value  in  maintaining  man's  recognition  of  these  motives 
to  faith. 

Moreover,  if  supernatural  intervention  to  renew  and 
intensify  the  motivity  to  faith  in  this  life  is  a  fact  it 
implies  a  negative  answer  to  the  above  question.  If,  in 
a  future  state,  better  conditions  to  faith  may  be  had  by 
the  selfish,  then  all  supernatural  revelation  in  this  world, 
including  the  ministry  and  atonement  of  Christ,  are 
superfluous  and  are  discredited.  The  incarnation  of 
God  in  Christ,  assuming  our  racial  and  social  conditions 
as  a  medium  of  contact  with  our  race,  implies  that  these 
are  essential  to  condition  saving  faith.  When  physical 
death  removes  our  bodily  conditions  this  medium  is  lost. 
The  evolution  of  love  had  doubtless  developed  the 
conditions  to  individual  self-determination  in  their 
essential  order;  and  if  self-determination  has  sunken 
the  person's  susceptibility  beneath  the  lowest,  simplest 
and  most  direct  conditions  to  faith  he  cannot  be  thought 
more  susceptible  to  them  in  the  more  advanced  stages 
of  that  evolution. 

Obdurate  selfishness  in  this  life,  as  against  these  con- 
ditions, sinks  the  personal  susceptibility  to  them  and 
establishes  aversion  toward  them.  Hence  it  renders 
the  person  incapable  of  corrective  probation,  though 
heaven  and  hell  were  perceptibly  open  before  him. 
The  chasm  between  his  self-determined  unsusceptibility 
to  the  ideal  and  the  higher  conditions  to  the  realization 
of  an  ideal  life  must  be  thought  impassable.  It  is  the 
enlightened  selfishness  of  this  world  that  is  the  most 
obdurate.  Those  who  are  selfish  amidst  the  most 
highly  intellectual  perceptions  of  the  ideal  are  the  most 
incapable  of  faith.  This  incapability  is  owing  to  the 
widened  chasm  between  their  intelligent  discrimination 


26o  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

of  an  ideal  life  and  their  sunken  susceptibility  to  its 
motives,  induced  by  selfish  determination.  Those  who 
are  not  won  to  a  life  of  faith  when  young  rarely  are 
when  old,  —  owing  to  the  widened  discrepancy  between 
their  debased  susceptibilities  and  the  motives  to  faith. 
The  discrepancy  between  the  selfish  affections  of  the 
obdurate  and  love's  higher  disclosures  in  the  future  is  a 
chasm  which  our  thought  cannot  bridge.  Nothing  but 
an  undebatable  revelation  from  God  can  afford  ground 
for  a  belief  that  it  is  possible. 

Hence  we  find  no  ground  upon  which  to  hope, 
much  less  affirm,  possible  conditions  in  a  future  state  in 
which  the  impenitent  of  this  present  life  may  become 
susceptible  to  motives  to  faith  and  love.  But  as  their 
selfish  life  has  narrowed  the  scope  of  their  moral  free- 
dom, increased  their  limitations,  and  diminished  their 
personality,  we  can  neither  affirm  nor  hope  anything 
better  for  them  than  a  gradual,  though  appalling,  agoniz- 
ing process  of  the  sinking  of  personality  until  personal, 
perhaps  all  consciousness  is  lost.  As  surely  as  love  is 
love,  it  implies  that  the  conditions  of  this  life  are  the 
most  favorable  to  man's  laying  hold  of  eternal  life. 
And  the  incarnation  of  God  in  Christ  implies  that 
these  conditions  are  necessary  to  human  salvation  by 
faith.     To  sink  himself  below  their  reach  is  to  perish. 

The  process  of  self-limitation.  — This  fact  which  marks 
selfish  life  is  implied  in  conditioned  personality.  The 
progressive  nature  which  love  has  afforded  to  all  con- 
ditioned persons,  and  which  by  innocent  self-determina- 
tion gives  rise  to  individual  self-consciousness,  followed 
by  conscious  enlargement  ot  freedom  while  faithful  deter- 
mination continues,  is  reversed  and  undone  by  selfish 
determination.     The  process  of  self-limitation  closes  in 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  26l 

upon  the  will  like  the  fabled  prison-walls  which,  ample  at 
first,  shrank  until  they  crushed  the  prisoner  in  their  em- 
brace. Step  by  step  the  conditions  to  self-determination 
have  been  wasted  by  abuse,  and  now  it  abides  only  as 
a  fixed,  stolid  sentiment  of  personal  malevolence,  power- 
less to  do  aught  but  nurse  its  self-consuming  hatred. 

The  sinking  of  personality  in  a  future  state  is  a  plain 
implication  of  love,  and  is  manifested  in  the  same  sink- 
ing process  which  is  begun  in  this  present  life.  It  is 
not  to  be  thought  a  positive  infliction,  but  a  result  which 
is  implied  in  the  nature  of  dependent  personality.  It  is 
brought  about  by  the  dependent  person  himself,  by  his 
narrowing  the  scope  of  his  self-determining  freedom, 
—  by  ignoring  the  independent  truth,  right,  and  good 
which  God  represents.  All  determination  of  his  life  in 
harmony  with  these  infinite  motives  to  faith  is  inter- 
cepted. Moreover,  his  susceptibility  to  them  is  destroyed. 
Selfishness,  even  in  its  most  amiable  or  imposing  ex- 
ternal form,  is  nothing  better  than  personal  devotion  to 
racial  and  social  conditions,  either  in  their  use  or  abuse. 
In  their  use  it  is  personal  devotion  to  no  motive  except 
those  which  are  temporal.  It  ignores  those  which  are 
eternal,  and  consequently  abuses  personal  conditions  by 
subjecting  them  to  that  which  is  beneath  essential  per- 
sonality. Having,  like  Dives,  sought  his  "  good  things  " 
in  this  world,  he  has  sunken  his  personality  beneath  all 
capability  for  the  good  things  of  a  future  state.  In  their 
abuse,  he  not  only  subjects  his  personal  conditions  to 
his  racial  and  social  interests,  but  to  these  in  the  most 
insignificant  and  brute-like  form,  making  the  incidental 
pleasures  the  objects  of  his  pursuit.  He  thus  not  only 
subjects  his  personal  determination  to  racial  and  social 
enjoyment,  but  to  the  most  limited  scope  of  these  con- 


262  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

ditions.  By  subjecting  his  mental  and  moral  capabilities 
to  the  behests  of  appetite,  passion,  avarice,  —  indeed, 
selfishness  in  any  and  all  forms,  —  he  becomes  their 
prisoner.  As  a  man  by  physical  and  mental  abuses 
limits  his  physical  and  mental  capabilities,  so  by  the 
abuse  of  his  entire  nature,  he  imposes  limitations  upon 
himself  which  close  in  upon  his  will  on  all  sides.  His 
self-love  having  become  wholly  selfishness  finds  no  scope 
for  self-determination,  except  in  the  gratification  of  its 
means  and  instruments.  Having  rendered  himself  un- 
susceptible to  any  but  selfish  motives,  he  is  incapable  of 
determining  himself  unselfishly,  even  when  disaster  over- 
whelms him  with  the  consciousness  of  disharmony  with 
all  his  conditions.  Having  made  himself  the  slave  of 
perverted  circumstances,  he  has  become  wholly  depend- 
ent upon  them  for  satisfaction.  Now  that  they  are 
exhausted,  their  absence  leaves  him  a  morbid  embodi- 
ment of  selfish  desire.  The  tide  of  earthly  circumstances 
over  which  he  might  have  directed  his  course  to  a  happy 
port,  but  upon  which  he  chose  to  float  idly  or  to  play 
the  pirate  upon  the  common  welfare,  avoiding  every 
port,  now  leaves  him  stranded  on  an  unexplored  and 
uncongenial  shore. 

Self-determined  aversion  to  love  has  positive  self-con- 
sciousness within  him.  The  respects  in  which  progressive 
determination  has  been  afforded  him  by  the  gracious 
conditions  of  his  earthly  life  were,  devotion  to  a  perfect 
personal  life,  a  perfect  universe,  and  companionship  with  a 
perfect  God,  —  either  implying  the  others.  He  has  re- 
jected them  all.  Now  that  he  has  established  aversion 
to  love  in  himself,  his  woe  is  not  only  the  loss  of  pro- 
gressive personality,  substituted  by  an  established  process 
of  self-limitation,  but  the  torture  of  existence  amidst  the 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL. 


263 


prevalence  of  a  perfecting  universe  and  a  perfect  God. 
The  spirit  of  perfectness,  the  "  Holy  Spirit,"  present  to 
his  consciousness,  —  but  which  he  had  evaded,  rejected, 
despised,  hated,  blasphemed,  while  it  sought  to  woo  him, 
—  is  now  the  all-pervading  atmosphere  of  love  in  which 
he  writhes  with  agonizing  aversion. 

How  long  the  process  of  the  sinking  of  personality 
may  continue  is  a  question  which  we  have  no  exact  data 
from  which  to  answer.  The  relative  persistence  of  differ- 
ent persons  in  the  agony  of  perishing  by  self-limitation 
is  implied  in  the  nature  of  personality.  One's  personal 
self-consciousness  must  be  thought  persistent  in  pro- 
portion as  his  selfish  purpose  is  definitely  determined. 
Hence  selfish  personality,  in  its  most  elaborate  determi- 
nation, may  be  expected  to  cling  to  its  purpose  longest, 
and  therefore  persist  longest  in  the  agony  of  the  perish- 
ing process.  "  He  shall  be  beaten  with  many  stripes." 
But  all-conditioning  love  cannot  be  affirmed  to  continue 
the  personal  nature  in  conscious  torture  after  the  con- 
sciousness of  self-determination  is  lost. 

Thus  the  ultimate  extinction  of  the  personal  con- 
sciousness of  the  obdurate  is  implied  in  the  nature  of 
personality  and  the  evolution  of  love,  — 

1  st.  In  the  complete  self-limitation  and  sinking  of 
selfish  personality  by  the  uncorrected  abuse  of  all-con- 
ditioning love. 

2d.  In  the  realization  of  the  perfect  universe,  the  com- 
panionship of  the  finite  with  the  infinite,  in  undisturbed 
harmony,  freedom,  and  security.  In  all  this  conflict  be- 
tween love  and  selfishness,  love  has  been  nothing  other 
than  all-embracing,  all-conditioning  love ;  but,  antago- 
nized, outraged,  blasphemed,  perverted,  a  consuming  fire. 
(This  question  is  considered  further  in  "  Eschatology.") 


264  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

The  self-determined  wreck  of  evil  by  the  sinking  of 
the  personality  of  the  impenitent  will  demolish  all  ob- 
jective motivity  to  selfishness.  This  utmost  demonstra- 
tion of  selfishness,  establishing  a  universal  conviction  of 
its  utter  worthlessness  and  entire  turpitude,  must  abol- 
ish its  power  and  place  in  the  realm  of  motivity.  It 
must  fix  in  all  minds  a  total  aversion  to  selfishness.  It 
must  fill  all  with  a  changeless,  unqualified  conviction 
that  love  alone  is  perfect  action,  infinite  in  uncondi- 
tioned egoism,  eternal  in  exhaustless  altruism.  Limitless 
benevolence  realizes  a  perfect  objective  exposition  of  the 
perfect  altruistic  freedom  of  God.  This  is  the  "  glory 
of  God."  It  must  inspire  in  each  finite  person  a  self- 
love  so  firmly  devoted  to  the  realization  of  love's  ideal  of 
their  personal  life  as  to  render  them  forever  unsusceptible 
to  selfishness.  No  motives  to  induce  the  innocent  to 
sin  can  survive  this  solution.  No  motives  but  such  as 
love  discloses  can  arise  in  the  universal  consciousness. 

That  a  progressive  universe  conditioned  in  ignorance, 
weakness,  temptation,  and  mercy,  is  the  only  conceiv- 
able ideal  universe,  has  been  sufficiently  set  out.  That 
such  progressive  universe  is  by  its  nature  exposed  to 
error,  sin,  and  sorrow,  is  fully  recognized.  That  error, 
sin,  and  sorrow,  must  be  possible  to  any  personal  uni- 
verse which  is  fit  to  be  created  is  an  unavoidable  con- 
clusion. The  divine  choice  to  create  is  vindicated  in 
its  holiness  and  benevolence.  We  have  seen  the  glori- 
ous aim,  a  holy,  loving,  good,  free,  and  secure  compan- 
ionship of  finite  with  infinite  being.  We  have  more 
than  hinted  that  this  companionship  is  but  the  founda- 
tion for  wider  and  nobler  realization  of  the  possibilities 
of  being,  and  that  the  eternal  range  of  progressive 
development,   conditioned  in   harmony,   freedom,  and 


THE  SOLUTION  OF  EVIL.  265 

security,  will  be  but  the  perpetual  realization  of  the 
Creator's  ideal.  The  realization  of  this  ideal  vindicates 
the  action  which  conditioned  the  long,  weary  curse  of 
sin  that  obtained  in  preliminary  stages ;  vindicates  it  by 
having  afforded  holy  and  merciful  conditions  upon  which 
each  person  could  not  only  abide  in  harmony  with  divine 
love,  but  find  correction  and  recovery  from  evil. 

We  have  seen  the  innocence  of  ignorant  error,  the 
minimum  of  guilt  and  harm  attending  error  and  sin,  the 
corrective  and  disciplining  tendency  which  love  imposes 
upon  error  and  sin,  conditioning  all  persons  with  hope 
and  help.  We  have  recognized  also  that  to  each  indi- 
vidual all  the  suffering  of  corrective  chastisement  is 
over-compensated  by  the  resulting  recovery  of  purity, 
strength,  and  endless  development  of  character;  that 
the  ills  imposed  by  heredity  and  environment  cannot  pre- 
vent his  spiritual  exaltation,  but  are  made  to  contribute 
to  it.  The  outraged  consciousness  of  martyrdom,  too, 
has  its  compensating  triumph  in  the  more  immediate 
actualization  of  an  ideal  life. 

All  this  wild  and  awful  scene  of  suffering  and  wrong 
has  its  compensation  only  in  love.  Love,  with  its  power 
to  inspire  and  glorify  the  conscious  spirit,  to  realize  to 
that  spirit  the  perfection  of  holiness,  truth,  beauty,  and 
good  ;  love,  with  its  rapture  ever  surviving  its  pang,  en- 
during its  torture  only  to  burst  forth  in  proportionately 
larger  development ;  love,  with  its  implication  of  immor- 
tality and  an  ever-advancing  ideal,  —  is  the  consolation, 
as  it  is  the  source,  of  the  universe.  As  love  is  the  self- 
sufficient  nature  of  the  unconditioned  reality,  it  is  self- 
sufficient  as  the  nature  of  a  conditioned  universe.  Love, 
and  immortality  for  love's  sake,  are  the  surviving,  all- 
compensating    factors   which   can   weave    every   error, 


2 66  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

sorrow,  and  repentance  into  the  will's  "armor  of  light," 
the  knightly  long-sufferer's  cloth-of-gold. 

Then  let  it  be  clearly  recognized  that  however  great 
may  have  been  the  sum  of  error,  sin,  and  sorrow  in  the 
universe,  it  is  the  least  that  could  be  secured  by  the 
Creator,  in  proportion  to  the  highest  possible  good  of 
dependent  persons,  and  that  the  greatness  of  its  volume 
is  due  to  these  persons  themselves,  who  alone  could  have 
made  it  less.  Let  it  be  remembered  also  that  wherein 
it  could  not  be  prevented  by  divine  love,  it  is  held 
within  conditions  which  provide  for  either  its  merciful 
remedy  or  its  self-extinction.  Nothing  but  unreasoning, 
perverse  devotion  to  sin  can  prevent  its  corrective, 
chastening  use    in  any  individual  soul. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  Creator,  in  choosing  to  create 
finite  beings,  but  indulges  love's  eternal,  altruistic  spirit, 
and  gives  it  the  most  beneficent,  because  perfect  deter- 
mination. He  develops  the  ever-increasing  good  of  his 
altruistic  life  as  he  ever  realizes  the  infinite  good  of 
his  unconditioned,  egoistic  life.  The  evolution  of  love, 
advancing  in  its  eternal  process  of  altruistic  determina- 
tion, maintains  the  original  unity  of  holiness  and  benevo- 
lence, and  assures  the  ultimate  oneness  of  the  actual 
and  the  ideal  universe. 


THE  ATONING  FACT.  267 


CHAPTER    IV. 


THE   ATONING    FACT. 


The  ideal,  to  this  summit  God  descends,  man  rises  —  Victor 
Hugo. 

In  perfect  action,  which  constitutes  perfect  being,  — 
the  unconditioned,  or  infinite  person,  —  we  have  found 
the  original  unit.  The  nature  of  that  action  we  have 
found  to  be  an  unconditioned,  infinitely  free  life ;  which 
unconditioned  life,  of  perfect  adjustment,  is  the  realiza- 
tion of  absolute  perfection;  and  that  this  self-enacted 
and  perfectly  adjusted  life  is  love. 

We  have  seen,  in  a  word,  that  the  nature  of  perfect 
action  is  love ;  and  that  love  is  an  order  of  self-deter- 
mining action  in  which  is  realized  infinite  self-conscious- 
ness, or  unconditioned  egoism.  Moreover,  this  perfect, 
love-achieved  egoism  conditions  perfect  altruism  without 
being  conditioned  by  it,  and  thus  the  existence  of  per- 
sons or  a  universe  of  persons,  other  than  the  infinite 
Person,  is  possible  and  probable  to  our  thought,  as  also 
certain  to  our  experience. 

In  the  determination  or  carrying  out  of  perfect  altru- 
ism we  have  seen  the  rise  of  relative  consciousness  in 
the  Deity,  —  the  divine  sonship,  —  and  also  the  putting 
forth  of  objective  action  by  the  divine  Son  in  the  crea- 
tion of  an  objective  universe  of  dependent  persons. 

We  have  also  seen,  in  a  former  chapter,  the  genesis 
of  evil,  and  the  necessity  of  merciful  benevolence  as  a 


268  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

condition  to  the  existence  of  a  perfect  personal  universe 
and  its  solution  of  the  "  problem  of  evil."  It  has  ap- 
peared too  that  this  solution,  whether  in  individual 
character  or  collective  forms  of  life,  is  one  in  which 
through  a  long  series  of  ages  sin  demonstrates  its  total 
lack  of  merit,  its  infinite  demerit ;  and  love  proves  its 
limitless  altruistic  capability,  sustaining  the  utmost  test 
imposed  by  sinful  freedom,  outliving  the  full  determina- 
tion of  sin,  and  affording  the  conditions  to  the  develop- 
ment of  a  universe  regenerated,  purified,  harmonious, 
and  secure  in  the  utmost  freedom  possible  to  dependent 
persons,  —  thus  realizing  the  eternal  companionship  of 
infinite  and  finite  being.  In  a  word,  love  is  able,  unim- 
paired, to  posit  the  conditions  of  a  universe  of  perfect 
finite  persons. 

We  have  seen,  further,  that  through  all  this  evolution 
of  love  its  immaculate  ideal  abides  uncompromised,  its 
devotion  to  that  ideal  unwavering,  its  eternal  altruistic 
spirit  unabated,  holy. 

But  hitherto  we  have  said  nothing  of  the  subjective 
strain,  so  to  speak,  which  is  experienced  by  a  love  which, 
though  holy  because  of  its  devotion  to  the  perfect, 
pours  out  unfailing  mercy  to  sinners,  affords  conditions 
for  measureless  sin  and  sorrow,  gives  scope  for  the  self- 
demonstration  of  sinful  freedom,  endures  incalculable 
abuse  ;  yet  is  unimpaired  in  holiness  and  benevolence. 
In  this  strain  upon  the  evolution  of  love  must  be  found, 
if  found  at  all,  the  atoning  fact. 

All  theories  of  atonement  which  involve  a  "  legal  fic- 
tion," a  criminal  substitution,  or  a  commercial  transaction 
are  crude  and  unsatisfactory  because  an  atoning  fact 
nowhere  clearly  appears  in  them.  All  theories  of  atone- 
ment by  martyrdom  or  "  moral  influence  "  are  superficial 


THE  ATONING  FACT. 


269 


and  evaporate  when  analyzed,  —  evaporate  because  they 
contain  no  atoning  fact.  To  affirm  an  atonement  is  to 
claim  that  there  exists  the  force  of  atoning  fact  in  the 
relations  of  God  to  the  universe  ;  and  to  teach  a  philos- 
ophy of  atonement  is  warranted  only  by  such  fact  hav- 
ing been  clearly  discriminated  as  implied,  disclosed,  or 
both,  by  love.  Hence  a  treatment  of  the  subject  should 
develop,  first,  an  atoning  fact,  and  secondly,  its  relation 
to  man  as  implied  in  divine  love. 

The  simplest  definition  of  atonement  is  "  a  bringing 
together,"  but  as  habitually  associated  with  religious 
sacrifice  it  includes  also  the  idea  of  suffering  on  the  part 
of  the  one  by  whom  this  bringing  together  or  reconcilia- 
tion is  accomplished.  In  addition  to  these  contents  of 
the  term,  the  fact  or  idea  of  vicarious  sacrifice  on  the 
part  of  the  atoning  one  is  insisted  upon  by  some  and 
rejected  by  others  as  essential  to  complete  the  notion  of 
atonement  for  sin. 

The  incompatibility  between  the  notion  of  a  holy  God 
and  the  fact  of  his  upholding  a  world  of  sinners  in  mer- 
ciful conditions  turns  all  thoughtfully  religious  minds 
toward  a  reconciliation  either  maintained  or  at  some 
time  achieved  in  his  action  toward  them.  But  how 
maintained,  or  at  what  point  achieved  and  at  what  cost 
are  questions  upon  which  there  has  been  much  disagree- 
ment. Lack  of  clear  discrimination  in  philosophy  must 
result  in  great  discrepancy  and  lack  of  clearness  in  the 
interpretation  of  data,  whether  these  data  be  natural  or 
revealed.  To  pursue  the  line  of  love's  evolution  seems 
to  the  writer  the  only  safe  method  by  which  to  ascer- 
tain what  of  atonement  it  implies,  —  whether  atonement 
is  a  fact,  and  what  is  the  form  of  that  fact.  Having 
found  such  fact  it  may  then  appear  whether  it  has  been 


2y0  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

originally  maintained  or  supplementarily  achieved ; 
whether  or  not  it  involves  reconciliation  and  suffering  ; 
and  whether  that  suffering  is  sacrificial  and  vicarious. 
Hence  reconciliation,  suffering,  sacrifice,  vicariousness, 
each  or  all  may  be  recognized  as  contents  of  the  ques- 
tion. Do  any  or  all  of  them  exist  in  fact,  or  are  they 
mere  figures  of  speech ;  and  if  all  really  exist,  do  they 
fill  out  the  notion  of  atonement  for  sin?  A  true  answer 
to  these  questions  must  decide  as  to  the  fact  and  phi- 
losophy of  atonement. 

The  notion  of  atonement  must  imply,  — 
i.    That  there  is  an  absolute  authority,  a  sacred  im- 
perative in  something. 

2.  That  this  imperative  is  propitiated,  satisfied,  by 
somewhat.     It  may  imply,  — 

3.  That  suffering,  agony,  is  incident  to  this  propitiation. 

4.  That  this  suffering  may  be  undeserved  by  the 
sufferer,  and  is  therefore  a  sacrifice. 

5.  It  may  be,  in  some  sense,  a  displacement  of  suf- 
fering in  others,  whose  suffering  should  result  from 
the  same  cause,  and  therefore  this  displacement  is 
vicarious. 

Some  of  these  contents  are  recognized  in  some  form 
in  every  theory  of  atonement,  but  may  have  been 
erroneously  distributed,  or  cumbered  with  crudities 
imposed  by  systems.  Two  things,  at  least,  ought  to 
appear,  namely  :  whether  in  the  evolution  of  love  there 
exist  facts  which  are  essentially  atoning  in  their  char- 
acter ;  and  what  is  their  true  relation  in  their  evolution. 

As  we  set  about  this  inquiry  let  us  reiterate  that 
love  is  action  which  is  conscious  of  an  ideal,  to  the 
realization  of  which  it  is  devoted.  It  is  devotion  to 
perfectness.     It  is  the  only  kind  of  action  of  which  we 


THE  ATONING  FACT. 


271 


can  conceive  which  is  capable  of  realizing  unconditioned 
perfection  ;  the  only  conceivable  nature  of  perfect  being. 
In  the  infinite  ego  it  is  unconditioned  intention  ever 
realizing  absolute  perfection.  And  in  finite  beings  it 
is  supreme  conditioned  intention,  the  only  kind  of  ac- 
tion known  to  us  which  can  determine  conditioned 
perfection. 

In  its  unconditioned  action  it  can  experience  no 
obstruction,  friction,  or  delay,  but  constantly  actualizes 
infinite  perfection ;  but  when  we  think  of  its  evolution 
in  an  objective  universe  we  must  think  of  it  as  condi- 
tioned devotement,  —  it  achieves  its  ends  by  means  of 
supplementary  effort.  It  is  devotement  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  a  finite  ideal,  which,  when  aohieved,  will  be  a 
perfect,  though  dependent  universe.  In  seeking  to 
actualize  such  ideal  universe  it  is  related  to  that  ideal 
as  subject  to  object ;  hence  its  action  is  conditioned  by 
that  object,  and  by  the  means  and  supplementary 
agencies  by  which  that  object  is  attained.  The  manner 
and  extent  of  its  action  are  mainly  decided  by  the  type, 
or  kind,  of  universe  it  seeks.  This  type  is  that  ideal 
which  it  strives  to  actualize. 

Since  love  is  devotion  to  the  perfect  it  is  a  perfect 
universe  only  which  its  evolution  can  have  in  view. 
This  action,  though  conditioned,  is  perfect  within  its 
conditions.  God's  action,  which  is  the  going  forth  of 
love  only  by  virtue  of  its  devotion  to  perfection,  cannot 
be  self-conscious  love  if  it  seek  less  than  the  ideal,  the 
perfect.  Not  only  does  love  realize  the  absolute  ideal 
in  the  independent  Being,  and  the  relative  ideal  in  the 
"  Eternal  Son,"  —  Creator,  —  but  having  chosen  to 
create  a  universe,  love  must  be  thought  as  devoted  to 
the  realization  of  an  ideal  object,  the  ideal  universe. 


2j2  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

Moreover,  an  ideal  universe  when  actually  realized  is 
a  perfect  universe.  A  perfect  universe  realizes  the 
highest  conditioned  good :  and  divine  love  acting 
objectively,  though  within  limiting  conditions,  cannot 
be  thought  as  implying  less  than  this  highest  condi- 
tioned good. 

The  essential  conditions  upon  which  love  can  realize 
a  universe  are  clearly  of  two  classes  :  — 

i.   The  ideal  sought  to  be  realized. 

2.    The  action  which  achieves  this  realization. 

i.  We  find  in  the  first,  the  ideal,  the  sacred  authority 
which  decides  what  manner  of  universe  must  be  evolved. 
This  sacred  authority  of  the  ideal  is  the  first  datum  in 
atonement.  A  former  chapter  treats  at  some  length  of 
the  authority  of  the  ideal,  and  hence  it  is  only  needful 
to  remember  here  that  the  sacred  or  the  holy  is  the 
quality  of  intentional  perfection  ;  that  whether  it  be  the 
actual  perfection  which  is  intentionally  realized  in  God 
or  the  ideal  perfection  which  is  intended  to  be  realized 
in  the  universe,  it  is  still  the  intending  or  purposing 
perfection  that  is  the  holy. 

Further,  the  ideal  could  have  no  authority,  no  moral 
imperative,  if  it  were  impossible  to  actualize.  But  since 
love  does  actualize  the  absolute  ideal  in  the  infinite 
being,  its  ideal  is  absolutely  authoritative  in  all  being. 
We  may  think  of  the  ideal  as  already  actualized,  practi- 
cal perfection,  or  as  actualizable  ideal  perfection.  In 
either  case  its  authority  is  absolute ;  it  is  the  holy,  or 
moral  imperative.  Because  love  only  is  perfect  action 
and  intentionally  realizes  the  perfect,  conditioned  or 
unconditioned,  its  ideal  is  holy  and  authoritative.  All 
other  action  is  subject  to  love's  moral  authority,  and  its 
fitness  or  unfitness  is  adjudged  by  the  criterion  of  love's 


THE  ATONING  FACT. 


273 


perfection.  This,  for  the  reason  that  love  is  the  only 
action  which  can  and  does  achieve  actual  perfection  of 
being.  It  is  plain,  then,  that  the  ideal  must  be  a 
changeless  condition  in  the  evolution  of  love.  It  is  the 
sacred,  uncompromisable  imperative. 

2.  Action  which  satisfies  the  requirements  of  its 
ideal  is  propitiation,  —  action  which  propitiates  the  per- 
fect in  behalf  of  the  imperfect.  Now,  since  God  has 
chosen  an  evolution  of  love,  that  evolution  must  satisfy 
love's  holy  imperative  by  actualizing  love's  ideal,  —  real- 
izing perfection  both  in  individual,  finite  persons  and 
in  the  universe.  This  is  the  same  as  to  say  that  love  is 
devotion  to  the  perfect  in  the  process  of  evolution  as 
well  as  in  the  perfect  nature  of  God.  Then,  if  love's 
evolutionary  action  is  devoted  to  the  realizing  of  ideal 
finite  personality  and  thereby  an  ideal  universe,  that 
devotion  propitiates  the  ideal.  Though  this  action  may 
be  conditioned,  modified,  limited,  abused,  perverted, 
by  finite  persons,  yet  if  it  maintains  conditions  upon 
which  the  perfect  finite  person  and  universe  may  be 
achieved,  it  thereby  propitiates  the  holy  imperative  of 
its  ideal.  The  sacred  ideal  which  is  actually  implicit  in 
love  is  the  imperative  fact;  devotion  to  that  ideal  is 
the  propitiating  fact  in  love's  evolution  of  the  universe. 
The  action  which  affords  the  conditions  for  the  perfec- 
tion of  finite  being,  and  hence  a*  perfect  universe  is  the 
propitiating,  satisfying,  atoning  fact. 

Again,  let  it  be  kept  in  mind  that  an  ideal  universe, 
when  practically  realized,  must  afford  the  highest  con- 
ditioned good,  and  hence  it  is  the  realization  of  perfect 
benevolence.  Thus  love,  which  realizes  absolute  holi- 
ness and  infinite  good  in  the  divine  egoism  is  not  only 
perfectly  holy,  but  also  perfectly  benevolent.  Love's 
18 


274  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

ideal,  the  changeless  imperative,  is  holy  and  benevolent 
in  all  personal  determination.  And  its  devotion,  which 
seeks  to  realize  the  i,deal  in  a  universe,  is  not  only  holy, 
but  benevolent  to  the  highest  degree  of  conditioned  per- 
fection. Hence  its  devotement  is  the  satisfaction  which 
the  ideal  requires.  To  thus  devote  its  action  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  conditions  upon  which  all  finite  per- 
sons may  realize  ideal  finite  personality  is  to  propitiate 
the  ideal  in  behalf  of  those  persons. 

If  God  were  simply  and  singly  altruistic,  wholly  de- 
voted to  conferring  advantages  upon  others,  regardless 
of  the  use  or  abuse  to  which  those  others  might  appro- 
priate these  advantages,  he  would  thus  ignore  the  ideal 
and  become  a  willing  party  to  such  abuse ;  a  willing 
party  to  selfishness  in  others.  He  would  have  no  per- 
sonal, subjective  interest  in  thus  giving  out,  save  the 
gratification  of  his  power  to  give ;  which,  in  such  case, 
would  be  a  selfish  and  wicked  satisfaction.  His  giving 
would  lose  the  quality  of  benevolence,  as  well  as  that  of 
holiness ;  and  would,  therefore,  cease  to  be  love.  It 
would  be  a  vain  prodigality  of  resources  fraught  with 
degrading  tendency  to  its  recipients ;  and  hence,  a  con- 
nivance at  their  degradation.  It  could  realize  no  higher 
self-determination  than  a  vainglorious  exhibition  of 
power.  In  the  event  any  one  of  its  recipients  should 
regret  his  own  degrading  abuses  and  aspire  to  some- 
thing better,  he  could  find  no  sympathy  or  incitement  in 
God's  action  to  help  him  back  to  moral  purity ;  it  could 
not  condition  moral  recovery.  Hence  love,  regarded 
as  simple,  unqualified  altruism,  omnipotent  alms-giving, 
would  be  unable  to  achieve  a  perfect  personal  universe. 
Altruism  without  intention  to  promote  excellence  in  its 
recipients  is  simply  universal  selfishness  ;  and  must  drag 


THE  ATONING  FACT. 


275 


Creator  and  creature  down  to  common  selfishness  and 
hate. 

Yet  all  the  imperfections  which  infidels  think  they  see 
in  the  world,  and  all  the  complaints  of  pessimists  arise 
from  this  absurd  view  of  divine  love. 

But  love,  in  its  devotion  to  the  practical  realization  of 
an  ideal  universe,  is  essentially  holy,  perfect  in  its  inten- 
tion, and  this  very  holiness  is  the  guaranty  of  beneficent 
altruism.  But  if  love  had  no  method  of  bestowing  but 
to  create  beings  with  the  largest  capacity  to  receive  and 
to  pour  upon  them  the  largest  gifts,  it  is  impossible  to 
see  how  it  could  achieve  a  universe  of  higher  motives 
than  hope  and  fear.  Hope  and  fear,  as  supreme  motives, 
are  the  inspiration  of  selfishness  in  dependent  beings, 
and  the  exponent  of  selfishness  in  the  independent ; 
and  so  love  vanishes. 

When,  then,  on  this  sin-cursed  planet,  we  say,  by 
authority  of  either  reason  or  revelation,  that  "  God  is 
love,"  that  affirmation  implies  that  his  action  intends 
perfection  —  he  is  holy ;  and  also  that  this  perfection 
is  achieved  by  beneficent  altruism  and  for  a  beneficent 
end  —  he  is  benevolent.  Action  fails  to  be  or  express 
love  when  either  of  these  qualities  is  absent.  It  has 
abandoned  the  ideal,  their  ground  and  guaranty. 

Action  which  satisfies  the  requirements  of  its  ideal  is 
propitiation.  Its  propitiatory  character  may  be  incon- 
spicuous amid  the  harmonies  of  uncrossed  love,  or  within 
simple  self-imposed  conditions.  But  when  love  is  crossed, 
the  realization  of  its  ideal  obstructed  and  baffled  by 
complex  conditions  imposed  by  other  and  antagonizing 
forces,  its  purity  traduced,  its  benevolence  made  the 
opportunity  of  selfishness,  its  conditioning  action  made 
to  serve  organized  evil;    and,  above  all,  when  it  gra- 


276 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


ciously  conciliates  and  blesses  its  self-debased  foes,  restor- 
ing them  to  the  harmonies  and  realization  of  perfect 
being,  —  Jt  is  then  that  it  demonstrates  its  propitiatory 
character  by  persistent  devotion  to  its  ideal,  notwith- 
standing these  obstructions. 

The  periodic  overflow  of  the  Nile  has  been  for  cen- 
turies the  most  marked  condition  to  life  and  wealth  for 
the  swarming  peoples  of  Lower  Egypt.  But  this  over- 
flow has  ever  been  supplied  by  the  action  of  mysterious 
and  long-hidden  sources  which  satisfy  an  imperative 
measure  of  repletion  in  the  solitudes  of  central  Africa. 
Vainly  did  the  idolatrous  people  seek  to  propitiate  that 
imperative  measure  with  prayers  to  the  mighty  river, 
when  its  hidden  sources  withheld  their  wonted  action. 
Only  their  action  which  swelled  the  bosoms  of  Africa's 
silent  lakes  could  propitiate  that  imperative  condition. 
In  the  placid  bosom  of  the  lake  is  the  heart-beat  of  the 
Nile.  Is  it  less  potent  than  where  its  pulsations  burst 
its  throbbing  arteries  in  Lower  Egypt?  This  mighty 
action,  which  for  hundreds  of  miles  pours  and  storms 
with  deliverance  and  wealth  upon  the  famished  lands,  is 
but  the  evolution  of  the  peaceful  action  of  those  long- 
undiscovered  lakes. 

The  wealth  of  the  Nile  may  be  made  to  serve  oppres- 
sion and  degradation,  yet  its  tides  roll  on,  and  will 
continue  until  the  neglect  and  abuse  of  the  conditions 
to  prosperity  which  it  affords  shall  cease.  Its  benefi- 
ciaries will  ultimately,  through  unselfish  intelligence, 
recognize  and  honor  the  persistent  propitiation  which 
in  distant  solitudes  affords  the  conditions  of  their  well- 
being. 

But  this  second  class  of  conditions  demands  a  more 
explicit  consideration.    These  conditions  are  those  which 


THE  ATONING  FACT. 


77 


are  evolved  by  love,  seeking  to  achieve  the  highest  con- 
ditioned good  in  a  perfect  universe.  Since  one  person 
cannot  determine  the  character  of  another,  but  can  only 
determine  conditions  upon  which  another  may  or  must 
determine  his  own  character,  love's  propitiation  of  the 
ideal  for  dependent  persons  can  only  consist  in  affording 
the  conditions  upon  which  they  may  realize  their  perfect 
being.  Unlike  the  first  condition,  the  ideal,  which  is  a 
changeless  imperative,  this  second  class  includes  chang- 
ing conditions  which  arise  in  the  actions  and  relations 
through  which  the  perfect  universe  is  evolved.  Since 
the  evolution  of  love  can  be  thought  as  striving  only 
toward  that  which  satisfies  its  ideal,  its  action  must  be 
thought  as  providing  those  conditions  only  upon  which 
free,  finite  persons  may  actualize  a  perfect  finite  exist- 
ence. Hence  the  question  :  What  is  a  perfect  finite 
personality  and  universe  ?  And  what  are  the  conditions 
requisite  to  a  perfect  finite  personality  and  perfect 
universe  ? 

The  first  of  these  questions  has  been  answered  in  a 
former  chapter,  substantially  thus  :  A  perfect  finite  per- 
sonality is  a  free  and  undisturbed  progressive  compan- 
ionship of  finite  persons  with  the  infinite  Person ;  or, 
progressive  interaction  of  dependent  with  independent 
being.  Analyzed,  it  is  dependent  persons  who  within 
their  conditions  have  (i)  perfect  harmony  with  God, 
and    consequently    within     and     among     themselves ; 

(2)  the  largest  freedom  to  determine  themselves ;  and 

(3)  perfect  security  in  this  self-determined  harmony. 

1.  Love  implies  universal  harmony,  the  harmony  of 
the  dependent  person  with  the  conditions  of  his  being 
which  are  posited  by  the  independent  Person  ;  and  as  a 
consequence,  the  harmony  of  dependent  persons  with 


278 


THE  EVOLUTION  OP  LOVE. 


each  other.  This  consequence  follows  from  their  com- 
mon harmonization  with  the  conditions  of  their  being 
which  divine  love  posits.  Love  is  the  basis  of  uni- 
versal adjustment.  Such  perfect  harmony  is  the  freest 
and  fullest  reciprocation  of  love  which  is  possible  be- 
tween all  finite  persons,  and  between  them  and  God.  It 
assures  the  right  of  a  common  devotion  to  ideal  self- 
hood in  each  individual  and  to  the  realization  of  the 
ideal  universe.  Pure  self-love  implies  the  highest  per- 
fection of  each  in  harmony  with  that  of  all ;  while  sel- 
fishness, the  right  of  none,  and  the  enemy  of  all,  implies 
the  degradation  and  ultimate  destruction  of  all  by  uni- 
versal disharmony.  Universal  harmony  in  reciprocation 
of  divine  love  is  essentially  implied  in  a  perfect  universe. 

2.  As  to  freedom,  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  again 
that  a  universe  can  be  known  only  as  one  of  beings  who 
are  consciously  other  than  the  Creator ;  self-determining 
and  therefore  persons.  But  a  perfect  universe  must  be 
composed  of  persons  whose  power  to  determine  them- 
selves is  the  greatest  possible  to  dependent  beings,  the 
largest  freedom  possible  to  dependent  existence.  Such 
freedom  must  be  thought  essential  to  the  highest  reali- 
zation of  finite  personality,  the  highest  conditioned  good, 
the  highest  capability  for  their  development  of  love  in 
companionship  with  the  infinite. 

3.  Again,  perfect  finite  personality,  or  a  perfect  uni- 
verse must  be  perfectly  secure  against  disharmony,  not- 
withstanding its  widest  freedom.  A  universe  which  is 
liable  to  discord  and  defection  cannot  be  deemed  per- 
fect, does  not  realize  perfect  dependent  being  to  its 
members  or  his  ideal  to  its  Creator.  Nor  can  it  assure 
undisturbed  progress,  but  must  embarrass  the  achieve- 
ment of  the  highest  conditioned  good.      The  danger  of 


THE  ATONING  FACT.  2^ 

discord  which  is  incident  to  the  freedom  of  dependent 
persons  must  be  averted  without  impairing  that  freedom. 

This  security  cannot  be  thought  attainable  by  any 
necessitating  measures ;  it  must  be  achieved  consistently 
with  the  largest  freedom  possible  to  dependent  beings. 
But  it  must  attain  an  improbability  of  defection  so  great 
as  to  be  practically  equivalent  to  an  impossibility.  This 
security,  though  not  in  the  least  degree  the  result  of 
force  or  fate,  must  be  practically  equal  to  fate.  Such  is 
the  moral  assurance  of  harmony  implied  in  the  thought 
of  perfect  finite  personality. 

Motivity,  not  coercion,  is  the  only  means  by  which 
this  security  is  attained.  Susceptibility  to  motives  of 
love,  and  aversion  to  motives  of  selfishness  in  any  form 
must  be  the  elements  of  this  security.  These  are  the 
lines  of  eternal  fortification  against  discord,  the  terms 
of  eternal  reassurance  to  companionship  between  finite 
beings  and  the  infinite.  Since  men  are  free  in  the 
sphere  of  conditioned  self-determination,  divine  love  can 
secure  their  reciprocation  only  by  incitement,  or,  as  we 
have  termed  it,  motivity.  By  motivity  we  understand 
outer  influence  and  inner  susceptibility,  each  affecting 
the  other,  and  both,  as  so  affected,  constituting  motivity. 
Only  by  motives  and  susceptibility,  or  aversion  thereto, 
can  persons  be  influenced  in  the  respects  in  which  they 
are  free.  Only  by  means  of  these  can  their  persistence 
in  any  given  course  be  perpetually  assured.  We  are 
perfectly  sure  that  men  will  never  feed  upon  stones,  for 
the  reason  that  they  have  no  appetence  for  stones,  and 
that  God  will  never  be  tempted  to  evil,  since  he  is  un- 
susceptible to  such  temptation.  So,  also,  a  universe  of 
finite  persons,  conditioned  by  permanent  motivity  to  love 
and  aversion  to  selfishness,  will  abide  in  love's  holy  em- 


2 go  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

brace  evermore.  In  the  realm  of  motivity,  then,  the 
holiness  and  goodness  of  free  being  is  to  be  achieved 
and  secured  in  whatever  degree  such  achievement  is 
possible. 

If  the  nature  of  finite  persons,  which  constitutes  one 
class  of  their  conditions,  were  so  fixed  and  unalterable 
as  not  to  be  susceptible  to  modification  by  their  use  or 
abuse  of  that  nature,  their  harmony  with  the  Creator's 
action  might  have  been  secured  by  the  Creator's  deter- 
mination, just  as  their  physical  susceptibility  assures  that 
they  will  never  feed  upon  stones.  But  in  such  case 
their  freedom  would  be  nothing  more  than  animal  ne- 
cessity, incapable  of  self-determined  character.  Hence 
they  would  not  be  persons,  hence  not  able  to  realize 
an  ideal  personality. 

Or  if,  having  all  the  elements  of  personality,  all  per- 
sons were  environed  with  external  conditions  which  so 
fully  manifest  the  truth,  glory,  and  power  of  God  as  to 
preclude  the  possibility  of  error,  —  such,  for  example, 
as  infants  and  idiots,  who  pass  from  this  world  without 
probationary  development,  are  thought  to  enter  upon, — 
they  might  be  thought  to  be  practically  secure.  They 
might  develop  a  love  of  God  and  a  harmonization  with 
their  environment  truly  delightful ;  but  they  could  never 
be  conscious  of  unsusceptibility  to  selfishness,  never 
conscious  of  a  self-determined  character,  secure  in  the 
exercise  of  the  largest  freedom  of  dependent  personality, 
hence  never  could  realize  a  perfect  finite  personality,  or 
a  perfect  universe. 

Since,  then,  finite  persons  are  free  in  their  self-deter- 
mination of  what  they  shall  be  as  to  the  use  of  their 
susceptibilities,  and  in  their  determination  of  what  they 
will  do  as  to  their  environment,   it  follows  that  their 


THE  ATONING  FACT.  2gl 

motivity  is  largely  self-determined.  That  is  to  say,  that 
divine  love  cannot  determine,  but  can  only  condition, 
the  motivity  of  other  persons,  which  shall  secure  them 
in  perfect  harmony.  Creating  them  persons  —  self-deter- 
mining —  was  to  make  them  liable  to  disharmony.  That 
liability  is  implicit  in  self-determination.  But  that  self- 
determination  is  so  conditioned  that  it  is  able  to  elimi- 
nate the  liability  to  disharmony  by  determining  in  itself 
a  susceptibility  to  love  and  aversion  to  selfishness  which 
can  never  be  disturbed. 

To  afford  the  conditions  upon  which  all  dependent 
persons  may  determine  their  own  perfection  is,  it  is 
clear,  the  work  of  divine  love.  This  work  is  love's  de- 
votion to  the  realization  of  the  perfect  finite  person  and 
the  perfect  universe,  —  the  atoning  fact.  If  love's  inter- 
action with  each  dependent  person  is  such  as  to  con- 
dition motivity  to  love,  if  to  the  erring  and  sinning  who 
have  not  chosen  fixed  antagonism  to  it  love  evolves 
conditions  to  recovery  from  evil,  and  if  upon  these  con- 
ditions dependent  persons  shall  attain  fixed  motivity  to 
good  and  aversion  to  evil,  then  does  love  successfully 
propitiate  the  ideal  in  its  evolution.  This  is  actual 
atonement  for  sin. 

But  since  harmony,  freedom,  and  security  are  essen- 
tial to  perfection  in  a  universe,  it  is  evident  that  in 
evolving  such  universe  the  Creator  goes  to  the  greatest 
length  in  hemming  himself  about  with  conditions  and 
obligations.  In  conditioning  the  finite  perfection  of  de- 
pendent persons,  he  enables  them  to  condition  his  own 
action  to  the  extent  that  whatever  they  may  determine 
in  the  use  of  themselves,  he  must  maintain  their  exist- 
ence and  respect  their  freedom  in  working  out  such 
results  as  they  determine  in  interaction  with  his  activities 


282  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

in  and  around  them.  This  is  implied  in  the  develop- 
ment of  perfect  finite  freedom.  This  alone  can  afford 
the  conditions  upon  which  they  may  either  rise  to  se- 
cure companionship  with  God  or  sink  to  self-determined 
destruction. 

But  we  can  easily  see  that  the  moral  freedom  of  de- 
pendent persons  which  shall  thus  appropriate  the  benev- 
olence of  love  may  abuse,  misappropriate,  and  pervert 
that  benevolence,  and  thereby  introduce  disharmony  and 
even  disaster.  By  creating  free  persons  the  Creator  has 
put  it  out  of  his  own  hands  to  prevent  the  rise  of  evil. 
One  person  can  only  condition  another ;  that  other  alone 
can  determine  himself  upon  such  conditioning.  The 
self-determining  power  of  persons  is  power  for  evil  as 
well  as  for  good.  They  are  able  to  pervert  their  nature 
and  environment,  and  that  is  to  pervert  the  action  of 
their  Creator,  and  thus  make  him  the  servitor  of  their  ini- 
quities. They  are  able  to  organize  his  activities,  which 
constitute  their  nature  and  natural  environment,  into 
vast  sources  and  systems  of  sin  and  suffering,  —  able  to 
turn  his  benefits  into  inflictions  of  wrong  upon  each 
other.  Moreover,  as  seen  in  former  chapters,  he  must 
permit  this  abuse  to  run  its  course,  or  else  he  must 
shrink  from  the  attempt  to  realize  his  altruistic  deter- 
mination, —  must  forego  the  bestowal  of  infinite  be- 
nevolence, —  abandon  the  evolution  of  love.  Thus  the 
determination  of  perfect  benevolence  furnishes  the  con- 
ditions upon  which  finite  self-determination  can  baffle 
benevolence,  and  set  at  naught  holiness  in  the  world. 
Unlike  God's  personal  perfection,  which  is  simply  self- 
determined,  the  perfection  of  the  universe  must  be  de- 
termined eventually  by  all  the  persons  who  make  up  that 
universe.     And  this  must  be  done  upon  the  conditions 


THE  ATONING  FACT.  283 

which  love  evolves,  however  modified  by  the  use  or 
abuse  which  may  be  imposed  thereon  by  the  actions  of 
finite  persons. 

These  conditions  being  holy  and  benevolent  in  aim 
and  tendency,  love's  evolution,  to  be  unimpeached  and 
untarnished,  must  be  successful,  however  much  of  evil 
may  arise  in  the  process  of  realizing  a  perfect  universe. 
Action  which  takes  chances  of  disaster  must,  to  be  holy 
and  beneficent,  provide  for  either  the  prevention  or 
remedy  of  such  disaster.  If  it  fail  in  this  it  is  respon- 
sible for  the  disaster,  and  hence  blameworthy  ;  no  matter 
how  pure  and  benevolent  the  impulse  which  prompted 
the  action.  Hence  it  is  true  that  only  love  appears  as 
the  nature  of  action  which  can  account  for  the  existence 
of  a  personal  universe.  For  love  only  can  successfully 
evolve  the  conditions  to  perfect  finite  personality. 
Though  it  condition  the  possibility  of  evil,  it  also  con- 
ditions the  remedy  of  evil,  and  this,  too,  without  injus- 
tice to  any  being. 

Since  the  self-determination  of  finite  persons  cannot 
be  violated,  but  is  in  their  own  hands,  yet  the  conditions 
to  their  self-perfecting  must  be  afforded  by  the  action 
which  evolves  their  being,  the  following  statement  is 
clear :  Love's  devotion  to  ideal  finite  being,  individual 
and  universal,  propitiates  the  ideal  by  affording  the  con- 
ditions upon  which  dependent  persons  may  achieve  per- 
fect finite  personality  and  determine  a  perfect  universe. 

That  justice  cannot,  but  grace  alone  can  condition 
the  development  of  a  perfect  universe,  has  been  shown 
in  a  former  chapter.  Enacting  the  perfect  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  a  universe,  love  can  contemplate  nothing  less 
than  persons  who  may  attain  to  the  highest  self-deter- 
mination possible  to  dependent  being;  that  they  shall 


284 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


achieve  this  in  accord  with  the  universal  right  of  self- 
love  and  thereby  realize  universal  harmony ;  and  that 
they  shall  be  able  to  attain  security  from  all  liability  to 
discord  or  defection.  Moreover,  the  practical  realiza- 
tion of  this  ideal  is  the  highest  conditionable  good ;  to 
bestow  which  is  the  benevolent  purpose  of  love's  evolu- 
tion. All  this  is  to  say  that  the  gracious  evolution  of 
love  —  an  evolution  beyond  the  limits  of  justice  —  con- 
ditions, not  only  the  rise,  but  the  remedy  of  evil.  It 
thus  conditions  the  realization  of  the  perfect  universe, 
and  hence  propitiates  the  imperative  ideal. 

The  question,  How  does  grace  accomplish  this  ?  has 
been  answered  in  outlining  the  problem  of  evil,  —  sub- 
stantially thus  :  the  ideal  finite  person  must  be  a  progres- 
sive person  ;  the  progressive  person  must  begin  as  an 
ignorant  and  feeble  person ;  an  ignorant  and  feeble  per- 
son must  be  conditioned  in  grace  ;  and  gracious  condi- 
tions are  evolved  by  love's  devotion  to  the  realization  of 
a  perfect  personal  universe. 

Dependent  persons  may  thus  settle  for  themselves  and 
for  all  intelligent  observers  and  associates  the  questions, 
doubts,  and  pretensions  which  ignorance  or  selfishness 
may  have  originated.  They  may  settle  them  by  demon- 
stration of  their  deceptive  and  despicable  nature  ;  and 
may  acquire  an  aversion  and  hatred  toward  selfishness 
that  will  render  them  forever  unsusceptible  to  its  tempta- 
tions ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  by  experience  of  love's 
purifying,  exalting,  remedial  grace  they  will  apprehend  it 
as  the  nature  of  perfect  being,  limitless  in  resource  ;  and 
will  acquire  an  ever  deepening  susceptibility  to  infinite 
motives,  the  charm  of  the  perfect.  Thus  they  may  de- 
monstrate that  love,  perfectly  holy  and  benevolent,  is 
the  nature  of  perfect  self-determination  ;  that  in  actual- 


THE  ATONING  FACT. 


285 


izing  its  ideals  they  have  the  open  sesame  to  the 
highest  determination  of  finite  freedom  and  excellence ; 
and  that  a  holy  God  and  a  holy  universe  are  the  in- 
finitely and  only  worthy  modes  of  being.  If  love,  sub- 
jected as  it  must  be  to  the  abuses,  perversions,  and 
conditions  which  finite  freedom  and  evil  can  impose, 
shall  nevertheless  achieve  successful  conditions  to  this 
universal  susceptibility  and  devotion  to  the  ideal,  and 
aversion  to  selfishness  and  selfish  motives,  it  will  thereby 
realize  a  perfect  universe,  —  a  universe  of  persons  in  har- 
monious articulation  with  the  divine  activities.  And  if 
in  the  meantime  it  shall  maintain  the  conditions  of  such 
motivity  to  all  persons,  it  will  have  propitiated  the  holy 
imperative  of  the  ideal. 

Action  which  should  create  a  person  or  a  universe  of 
persons  in  the  highest  form  of  finite  powers,  not  being 
able  to  remedy  sin  except  by  exercise  of  justice  in  the  in- 
fliction of  punishment,  cannot  render  evil  self-corrective, 
cannot  inspire  devotion  to  ideal  personality,  hence  can- 
not propitiate  the  authority  of  the  perfect,  and  hence  can- 
not make  an  atonement  upon  which  sin  could  be  forgiven 
or  the  sinner  recovered  to  loving  harmony  with  God.  But 
the  evolution  of  love,  in  a  universe  of  progressive  persons, 
because  it  maintains  in  each  person  the  authority  of  the 
ideal,  and  affords  him  merciful  conditions  upon  which  to 
actualize  an  ideal  self,  can  achieve  ultimately  perfect  finite 
personality  and  a  perfect  universe.  And  because  it  can 
and  does  do  this,  love's  devotement  to  the  ideal  atones 
for  all  the  evil  incident  to  a  progressively  self-determin- 
ing universe.  It  atones  to  the  ideal  by  maintaining  the 
authority  of  that  ideal,  and  by  conditioning  its  realiza- 
tion. It  conditions  the  realization  of  its  ideal,  not  by  re- 
pressing, but  by  remedying  evil.     It  achieves  security  in 


2 86  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

the  harmony  of  perfect  finite  freedom,  not  by  eliminat- 
ing freedom,  but  by  conditioning  the  self-elimination  of 
all  susceptibility  to  the  abuse  of  freedom,  and  by  incit- 
ing universal  devotion  to  the  perfect.  In  a  word,  it 
discloses  the  nature  of  perfection,  and  conditions  a 
universal  motivity  to  enact  the  perfect  in  what  persons 
should  be  and  do. 

The  evolution  of  love,  advancing  in  its  eternal  process 
of  altruistic  determination,  maintains  the  original  unity  of 
holiness  and  benevolence,  and  assures  the  ultimate  one- 
ness of  the  ideal  and  actual  universe.  The  holy,  which 
is  the  quality  of  intentional  perfection ;  and  the  good, 
which  is  the  practical  satisfaction  of  perfection ;  and 
benevolence,  the  bestowing  of  good,  —  are  perpetually  at 
one.  Neither  moral  impurity  nor  failure  in  benevolence 
appears  in  this  process,  although  dependent  persons  may 
fill  its  bosom  with  unspeakable  selfishness  and  wrong. 
No  reconciliation  is  needed  in  love's  action,  other  than 
that  which  exists  unbroken  in  the  original  and  indivisi- 
ble unity  of  the  holy  and  the  good.  This  inviolable 
unity  reconciles,  in  love,  the  amplest  determination  of 
benevolence  with  ideal  holiness.  Love  is  the  unity 
which  holds  in  reconciliation  the  factors  of  its  evolution, 
the  holy  imperative  of  the  ideal,  and  the  limitless  ben- 
evolence which  affords  the  conditions  for  the  realization 
of  this  ideal.  This  realization  will  be  the  universal  one- 
ness of  the  actual  and  the  ideal.  Love's  devotement  to 
the  ideal,  the  atoning  fact,  is  the  power  and  pledge  of 
that  oneness.  The  implicit  oneness  of  holiness  and 
merciful  benevolence  in  love  becomes  explicit  in  the 
ultimate  oneness  of  the  actual  and  the  ideal  in  the  per- 
fection of  the  universe. 

Thus  God's  devotement  to  the  perfect  is  the  satisfy- 


THE  ATONING  FACT. 


287 


ing  fact  in  the  placid  harmonies  of  the  infinite  conscious- 
ness, the  propitiating  fact  in  his  relative  consciousness 
amid  the  disharmonies  of  his  abused  and  perverted 
mercies,  the  atoning  fact  in  conditioning  the  recovery 
and  security  of  the  harmonies  of  a  perfect  universe. 
Verily  love's  devotement  to  its  ideal  is  the  atoning  fact. 
It  realizes  full  determination  only  in  action  which  is  per- 
fect, —  perfect  in  purpose,  and  unlimited  in  the  benevo- 
lence which  compasses  that  purpose,  —  like  a  mighty 
river  whose  onward  action,  hedged,  dammed-up,  turned 
awry,  conditioned  by  abuse  and  perversion,  rises,  widens, 
and  bears  the  universe  on  to  a  shoreless,  fathomless  per- 
fection of  being. 

The  agony  of  love.  —  This  is  that  consciousness  of  soli- 
citude which  is  implied  in  conditioned  effort  to  realize 
the  ideal.  Unconditioned  action  realizes  perfection  in 
itself;  hence  in  his  unconditioned  self-determination 
God  cannot  be  thought  conscious  of  solicitude  in  real- 
izing absolute  perfection.  But  as  the  "  Eternal  Son,"  the 
relative  consciousness  in  Deity,  he  must  be  thought  con- 
scious of  solicitude  in  his  objective  effort  to  evolve  a 
perfect  universe,  conditioned  as  his  effort  is  by  the  free- 
dom of  the  persons  who  compose  that  universe.  Hence 
this  solicitude  must  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  impli- 
cations of  divine  love  in  its  evolution. 

This  solicitude  is  subject  to  be  deepened  into  indefi- 
nite degrees  of  intensity  by  the  perverse  determinations 
of  the  dependent  persons  whose  perfecting  is  the  object 
of  love's  devotion.  The  Creator's  activities,  put  forth  to 
condition  the  development  of  dependent  persons,  may 
be  so  baffled  and  perverted  as  to  defer  for  indefinite 
ages  the  object  of  his  devotement.  The  degradation 
and  sorrow  also  of  his  children  which  must  result  from 


2g8  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

this  disharmony  must  vastly  enhance  the  anguish  of 
love's  devotion  to  their  highest  good.  Hence  love  in 
this  evolution  must  experience  that  which  in  human 
experience  and  human  language  is  agony.  Though  we 
may  not  affirm  actual  pain,  we  must  recognize  divine 
iove  as  being  in  that  attitude  which  to  human  love  is 
the  very  rack  of  anguish.  And  if,  in  any  event,  this 
divine  consciousness  were  expressed  through  the  medium 
of  human  nature  it  must  be  a  revelation  of  agony. 

The  solicitude  of  love  must  be  borne  until  the  actual 
universe  shall  realize  the  ideal ;  until  love's  devotion  to 
the  ideal  is  crowned  with  universal  success.  Until  then 
the  activities  of  divine  love  are  subject  to  abuse  and 
perversion,  which  baffle  and  retard  the  practical  realiza- 
tion of  the  end  to  which  it  is  devoted.  This  devote- 
ment  is  subject  (i)  to  possibility  of  the  rise  of  error, 
selfishness,  and  suffering  in  the  world ;  (2)  to  the  actual 
existence  and  world-wide  prevalence  among  men  of  sin 
and  suffering.  Moreover  (3)  these  activities  are  subject 
to  their  being  made  to  co-operate  with  sin  and  sorrow 
and  afford  scope  and  power  for  their  domination ;  (4) 
selfishness  arises  in  rivalry  with  love  and  usurps  its 
throne  in  the  human  heart ;  (5)  the  good  of  being  is 
for  ages  abridged  by  actual  evil ;  and  (6)  there  is  finally 
a  final  rejection  of  love's  effort  in  the  incorrigible,  which 
love  can  remedy  only  by  conditioning  the  self-defeat,  per- 
haps self-extinction  of  the  conscious  sinner.  All  these 
facts  and  considerations,  while  they  do  not  tarnish  the  di- 
vine purity  or  benevolence,  constitute  subjection,  offence, 
agony  to  love.  Although  love  so  conditions  them  with 
corrective,  remedial,  and  exalting  tendencies,  yet  they 
condition  love,  obstruct  its  benevolence,  and  offend 
its  purity ;  hence  must  be  thought  as   of  unspeakable 


THE  ATONING  FACT. 


289 


offence  and  agony  to  love.  Although  the  Creator  might 
in  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  justice  destroy  each  sinner, 
and  thus  forego  the  development  of  finite  character  to 
a  higher  type  than  force  and  fear  could  incite,  although 
God  might  have  chosen  to  dwell  in  unalloyed  bliss  with- 
out creating  a  universe,  yet  this  conclusion  abides  un- 
moved :  His  nature,  love,  "  naturally  desires  "  objects 
to  love  ;  objects  that  can  know  and  feel  that  love ;  ob- 
jects that  can  reciprocate  that  love  ;  hence  objects  that 
are  free  persons,  able  to  reject,  revile,  and  abuse  that 
love.  Love  can  manage  these  only  by  surrounding 
them  with  conditions  of  mercy.  This  management  is 
subject  to  ages  of  the  continuance  of  evil,  and  this  con- 
tinuance imposes  ages  of  antagonism,  offence,  and  prac- 
tical subjection,  which  condition  and  therefore  agonize 
love.  Hence  it  is  evident  that  love's  choice  to  create 
a  universe  of  persons  is  the  choice  to  accept  the  vast 
cycle  of  agony  which  it  must  undergo  on  account  of 
error,  sin,  and  sorrow  which  it  must  permit. 

Perhaps  sin  and  sorrow  could  have  been  avoided  by 
creating  a  universe  of  a  low  order,  —  and  thus  love's 
agony  avoided  :  but  such  could  not  have  been  love's 
universe.  It  might  have  served  to  display  divine  power 
and  maintain  divine  supremacy  undisputed,  but  it  could 
never  achieve  divine  companionship,  never  be  worthy  of 
divine  love.  Could  love  in  any  way  dissolve  the 
original  unity  of  holiness  and  benevolence  and  maintain 
its  own  existence  as  devotement  to  the  perfect,  it  might 
avoid  its  agony.  But  since  it  is  what  it  is,  it  must 
agonize  until  devotement  to  the  perfect  is  assured 
throughout  the  conscious  universe.  Devotement  to  the 
ideal,  which  is  the  bond  of  reconciliation  throughout  the 
entire  evolution  of  love,  the  bond  which  holds  an 
19 


2qo  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

ignorant,  sinful,  and  suffering  world  in  the  arms  of  a 
holy  benevolence  until  it  shall  develop  its  own  security 
in  holy  freedom,  —  this  all-reconciling  devotement  is  the 
agonizing  factor  in  love. 

If  in  the  exercise  of  their  self-determination,  God's 
children  abuse  his  beneficence  by  making  it  an  occasion 
for  selfish  satisfaction  in  sin  of  every  kind,  it  would 
cause  no  regret  in  him  if  his  love  were  without  devo- 
tion to  the  perfect,  without  the  quality  of  holiness.  But 
because  of  this  quality  in  love,  such  abuse  of  his 
beneficence  results  in  agony  to  love.  Hence,  in  order 
to  carry  out  the  highest  benevolence,  perfect  altruism  in 
ideal  finite  being,  by  abiding  holy  it  must  continue  to 
agonize.  This  is  the  agony  of  devotement.  This  is  the 
sphere  in  which  the  intense  strain  between  the  ideal  and 
the  actual  appears. 

Devotement  to  the  ideal  is  unswervingly  holy.  That 
ideal  demands  ever-enlarging  benevolence  toward  the 
erring  and  selfish,  in  order  to  its  realization  by  their 
correction  and  redemption.  This  larger  benevolence  is 
in  turn  appropriated  by  sinners  as  opportunity  for 
further,  wider,  vaster  evil.  The  discrepancy  between 
the  actual  and  the  ideal  world  becomes  a  breach,  the 
breach  becomes  a  chasm,  the  chasm  an  antagonism. 
The  actual  world  is  at  war  with  its  ideal  and  with  the 
forces  which  condition  its  existence  and  perfecting. 
Yet  love's  devotion  enlarges  its  benevolence  to  cir- 
cumvent that  antagonism ;  multiplies  benefits  to  its 
enemies,  gives  them  standing-room,  fighting-room, 
supplies  them  with  the  instruments  of  their  warfare, 
replenishes  their  commissariat,  and  still  offers  them 
amnesty,  pardon,  fellowship,  eternal  companionship. 
All  this   ever-widening  benevolence  it  gives  that  they 


THE  ATONING  FACT.  2gi 

may  perceive  its  excellence,  may  find  incitement  and 
opportunity  to  recover  from  selfishness,  and  that  sin 
may  defeat  itself  either  in  the  sinner's  self-loathing  and 
renunciation  of  it,  or  by  means  of  his  incorrigible  self- 
degradation  and  perhaps  entire  loss  of  moral  freedom 
and  personality.  Thus  through  ages  upon  ages,  baffled, 
abused,  perverted,  apparently  defeated,  its  activities 
turned  against  itself,  helplessly  sustaining  sin  by  lovingly 
sustaining  the  existence  of  sinners,  meeting  greater 
emergencies  with  greater  mercies,  yet  unswerving  in 
devotion  to  the  ideal,  hence  atoning  to  the  ideal, 
love's  atonement  is  an  atonement  of  agony. 

This  is  not  the  agony  of  correction,  for  that  would 
imply,  in  love,  fault  and  dependence.  It  is  not  the 
agony  of  punishment,  for  that  would  imply  its  moral 
degradation.  It  is  not  the  agony  of  defeat,  for  that 
would  be  destruction.  It  is  an  agony  which  persists 
because  the  quality  and  efficiency  of  the  agonist  are 
maintained  unimpaired.  Because  its  quality  and  effi- 
ciency can  and  do  abide  in  unwavering  devotion  to  the 
ideal,  throughout  the  process  of  evolving  a  perfect 
universe,  it  atones.  Because  unimpaired  in  quality,  it 
can  afford  to  maintain  the  attitude  of  forgiveness,  and  is 
efficient  to  achieve  the  recovery  of  the  erring  and 
sinning.  It  atones  in  conditioning  the  ultimate  harmony 
and  security  of  dependent  persons  in  the  largest  finite 
freedom.  It  is  the  one  fact  in  which  love  evinces  to 
finite  minds  its  infinite  sufficiency  to  await  the  deter- 
mination of  its  ideal,  notwithstanding  the  most  difficult 
conditions  which  the  largest  freedom  of  a  conditioned 
universe  can  impose. 

The  benevolent  father  who  sees  his  benevolence 
made  the  occasion  and  instrument  of  crime  and  shame 


29 2  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

by  his  son  would  experience  no  sense  of  agony  if  he 
were  indifferent  to  moral  purity  and  honor  in  himself  or 
his  son.  But  because  he  is  a  pure,  as  well  as  benevo- 
lent father,  it  is  grief  to  him  to  witness  this  abuse  and 
perversion  of  his  benevolence.  And  while  his  love  to 
his  boy  cannot  prevent  that  boy's  wickedness  in  any 
way  except,  by  greater  lenience,  to  render  that  wicked- 
ness corrective  and  provide  that  it  shall  have  the 
least  disastrous  result,  it  must  be  to  himself  a  cause  of 
inexpressible  agony.  But  because  of  this  very  agony 
which  is  at  once  the  exponent  of  his  purity,  his 
benevolence,  and  his  boy's  turpitude,  he  is  in  the  best 
possible  position  to  forgive,  help,  and  ultimately  recover 
his  wayward  son.  It  is  this  agony  that  evinces  to  the 
son  that  his  repentance  will  meet  with  forgiveness  and 
be  moral  uplifting  to  him.  This  agony  could  be  avoided 
in  either  of  two  ways  :  by  abandoning  either  his  child  or 
his  moral  purity.     Either  would  be  the  defeat  of  love. 

If  an  ideal  family  government  were  the  type  of  gov- 
ernment in  our  thought  when  characterizing  our  view 
of  the  atonement,  we  should  unhesitatingly  term  it  a 
"  governmental  theory."  But  the  "  governmental 
theory,"  so  termed,  is  so  cumbered  with  the  crudities 
of  civic  forms  and  political  preconceptions  that,  to 
avoid  misunderstanding,  we  prefer  to  term  it  the  Par- 
ental Theory.1 

Sacrifice.  —  This  is  necessarily  implied  in  the  evolution 
of  love.  In  choosing  to  bestow  the  greatest  good  of  finite 
personal  existence,  by  conditioning  a  world  of  persons, 
love  places  itself  in  a  position  where  it  is  subjected  to 

1  Since  this  chapter  was  written  there  has  appeared  "Abbot's 
Commentary  on  The  Romans,"  in  which  a  somewhat  similar 
though  dimly  defined  view  of  the  divine  agony  is  suggested. 


THE  ATONING  FACT.  2q3 

agony.  This  agony,  willingly  assumed  by  love,  that  it 
may  bestow  the  highest  good  possible  to  a  dependent 
universe,  is  its  sacrifice,  because  undeserved.  God 
might  have  chosen  to  dwell  in  no  mode  of  conscious- 
ness lower  than  the  unalloyed  enjoyment  of  his  infin- 
itely perfect  egoism.  Or  he  might  have  chosen,  in 
his  perfect  altruistic  freedom,  to  create  a  universe  of 
persons  in  the  highest  possible  degree  of  finite  intelli- 
gence and  power,  to  be  dealt  with  upon  the  conditions 
of  arbitrary  right  and  justice ;  each  person  being  de- 
stroyed in  the  first  inception  of  selfishness  ;  each  sinner 
thus  suffering  his  own  ill-desert.  The  moral  purity  of  the 
Creator  or  of  the  universe  might  thus  have  been  main- 
tained without  agony  or  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  God. 
But  this,  as  we  have  seen,  could  not  realize  a  world  of 
dependent  persons  of  higher  type  than  force  and  fear 
could  incite,  hence,  not  a  world  capable  of  highest  good, 
not  an  ideal  world,  not  love's  world.  But  since  it  is  in 
love  that  God  has  chosen  to  create  persons  who  shall 
have  the  greatest  freedom  possible  to  dependent  beings, 
in  order  that  they  may  realize  the  highest  good  possible 
to  dependent  personal  existence  ;  and  since  he  maintains 
the  conditions  requisite  to  such  realization  through  his 
agonizing  devotement ;  and  since  this  agony  is  imposed 
by  the  free  abuse  of  these  conditions  by  dependent 
persons,  it  is  clear  that  this  agony  is  not  deserved  by 
love,  but  is  a  gracious  sacrifice  which  it  makes  to  achieve 
their  perfection  and  to  bestow  upon  them  the  resulting 
good.  Hence  we  may  say  that  love's  agony  is  unde- 
served, (i)  because  God  is  under  no  obligation  to 
create  other  persons ;  and  he  gains  nothing  to  himself 
by  creating,  as  it  is  not  requisite  to  the  perfection  of 
independent  being,  but  is  chosen  in  perfect  freedom. 


294  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

(2)  Having  chosen  to  create,  he  imposes  upon  himself 
the  obligation  to  be  just,  only.  He  is  under  no  obliga- 
tion to  secure  to  created  beings  a  larger  degree  of  good 
than  that  which  will  compensate  them  for  such  incon- 
venience or  ill  as  may  be  naturally  incident  to  their  type 
of  being.  (3)  But  having  chosen,  from  motives  of  love, 
to  create  and  condition  a  world  which,  in  order  to 
achieve  the  highest  possible  good  to  his  creatures  im- 
poses upon  him  the  agony  of  atonement,  that  choice  is 
a  choice  of  agony.  Choosing  agony  as  the  path  to  the 
limitless  good  of  others,  others  whose  existence  con- 
tributes nothing  to  his  own  perfection,  is  the  unspeak- 
able sacrifice  of  love. 

The  evolution  of  love  in  the  personal  universe  is  but 
a  process  of  positing  conditions.  Upon  these  condi- 
tions dependent  persons  rise  into  being  and  determine 
their  destiny.  Love,  in  its  evolution,  constantly  holds 
the  conditions  to  highest  good  to  all,  and  persistently 
widens  and  deepens  them  that  it  may  condition  the 
perfection  of  the  most  lowly  and  vile.  Persistently  does 
it  support  the  purest  and  most  aspiring  with  conditions 
to  yet  higher  attainment.  In  all  this,  love  places  the 
determination  of  its  evolution  in  the  hands  of  the 
creatures  whom  it  conditions.  If  they  so  determine, 
that  evolution  will  be  rapid  and  upward ;  if  they  deter- 
mine otherwise  it  will  be  slow  and  degrading,  taking 
wide,  tortuous,  and  agonizing  detour  to  condition  the 
possession  of  a  promised  land  which  might  have  been 
reached  by  a  short  and  direct  route.  To  voluntarily 
place  the  determinations  for  which  one  is  ultimately 
responsible  in  the  hands  of  others  is  the  very  essence 
of  sacrifice.  Its  determination  is  thus  placed  in  their 
hands   when   love's   evolution,    which    posits    gracious 


THE  ATONING  FACT.  205 

conditions  of  holiness  and  good,  is  subjected  to  the 
wrong  and  abuse  to  which  it  is  perverted  by  a  race  of 
sinners ;  and  this  must  be  until  the  self-correction  and 
self-defeat  of  sin  constrain  them  to  acknowledge  its 
perfect  excellence.  When  love's  objective  action  sub- 
mits to  be  conditioned  by  every  error  and  sin  of  each 
member  of  a  world  of  sinners,  and  its  grand  aim  is, 
without  right  or  reason,  deferred,  baffled,  and  antago- 
nized by  their  freedom,  which  love  sacredly  respects  and 
upholds,  its  entire  evolution  is  an  unspeakable  sacrifice. 
When  each  error  is  a  check,  and  each  sin  a  grief  to 
love's  devotement  to  the  perfection  and  highest  good  of 
all,  the  determination  of  that  good  is  sustained  in 
agony ;  and  that  agony  is  an  agony  of  sacrifice. 

That  all  this  is  involved  in  the  original  project  of 
a  universe  does  not  change  the  sacrificial  character  of 
love's  evolution,  but  enhances  the  benevolent  motive 
by  so  much  as  this  sacrifice  was  known  to  be  inevitable 
to  carry  out  that  motive.  Through  this  cycle  of  sin, 
shame,  insult,  and  perversion,  love  proves  a  ready  and 
able  interaction  with  the  recalcitrant  sinner,  nation, 
world,  —  to  forgive,  cleanse,  and  reform  them  whenever 
they  so  determine.  Its  flame  burns  only  to  warm, 
cheer,  and  mature  them  ;  though  they,  by  their  free,  but 
false  adjustment  to  it,  make  it  a  torture.  Yet  love  en- 
dures this  vast  sacrifice  in  order  that  when  they  relent 
it  may  be  able  to  recover  and  save  them.  Is  love 
benevolent,  its  beneficence  is  made  by  sinners  the 
instrument  of  malice.  Is  love  gracious,  that  grace  is 
made  the  occasion  for  vast  schemes  of  injustice.  Is 
love  holy,  that  holiness  is  made  the  pretext  for  oppres- 
sion. Is  love  true,  that  truth  is  clipped  and  carved  into 
lies.     Is  love  beautiful,  that  beauty  is  made  the  decoy 


296 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


of  lust.  Is  love  pleasurable,  sin  drugs  that  pleasure  with 
misery.  On  the  altar  of  an  ideal  universe  every  quality 
of  divine  love  quivers  in  sacrifice  because  the  high  priest 
of  finite  being  is  devoted  to  the  realization  of  that  holy 
ideal. 

By  this  sacrifice  the  authority  of  the  ideal  in  the 
actual  is  maintained,  for  the  world  and  for  each  finite 
person  in  their  conditions.  And  the  unity  of  the  ideal 
and  the  actual  is  assured  in  the  ultimate  development. 
The  existence  of  error,  sin,  and  sorrow  is  compatible 
with  divine  purity  and  benevolence  because  love  endures 
this  sacrifice  in  order  that  wrong  and  sin  may  be  self- 
correcting,  self-defeating,  and  self-exhausting ;  and  that 
sorrow  may  be  made  self-compensating  by  the  chastening 
and  disciplining  office  to  which  it  is  conditioned  by 
love. 

Vicariousness,  or  substitution,  is  also  implied  in  the 
atoning  agony  of  love.  The  agony  which  love  endures 
displaces  the  suffering  which  sinners  must,  upon  con- 
ditions of  justice,  endure  as  the  result  of  their  selfishness. 
The  unrestrained  result  of  selfishness  is  the  correct  notion 
of  punishment;  hence  it  is  correct  to  say  that  the  punish- 
ment of  sin  is  displaced  by  the  agony  of  love  which  is 
endured  in  maintaining  merciful  conditions  for  the  re- 
covery of  sinners.  This  agony  is  caused  by  sin  ;  but 
sin,  without  the  merciful  conditions  to  which  this  agony 
is  incident  would  instead  cause  hopeless  punishment  to 
the  sinner.  Hence  the  agony  of  love  is  a  true  substitute, 
vicarious  agony  for  the  hopeless  disaster  which  would 
justly  result  to  every  sinner.  Instead  of  sinners  being 
abandoned  to  the  selfish  course  which  they  have  chosen 
and  to  the  sufferings  of  which  it  must  be  the  cause, 
mercy  affords  conditions  for  pardon  and  the  recovery 


THE  ATONING  FACT.  2gj 

from  it,  and  gives  chastening  effect  to  the  ills  which  they 
may  have  already  incurred.  The  agony  thus  incident  to 
a  "  covenant  of  grace,"  love's  devotion  to  the  perfect, 
can  fail  as  a  substitute  for  sin's  result,  only  in  the  case 
of  the  sinner  who  ignores  it,  tramples  upon  it  as  though 
it  were  "  an  unholy  thing." 

Thus  the  agonizing  devotement  to  the  perfect  which 
maintains  the  original  unity  of  action  and  ideal,  in  all  the 
evolution  of  conditions  to  a  personal  universe,  reconciles 
the  amplest  development  of  benevolence  with  the  im- 
perative behests  of  holiness,  and  bounds  the  vast  sea  of 
evil  with  a  "  ministry  of  reconciliation."  The  evolution 
of  love  discloses  — 

i .  An  absolute  authority,  the  sacred  imperative  of  the 
perfect. 

2.  The  propitiation  of  that  authority  by  devotement  to 
the  perfect  in  all  love's  action  which  conditions  finite 
being. 

3.  The  agony  of  love  in  its  subjection  to  the  free  and 
full  demonstration  of  evil. 

4.  Sacrifice  in  undergoing  this  agony  undeserved. 

5.  Vicariousness,  in  that  its  agony  displaces  disaster 
which  would  justly  result  to  sinners  by  their  own  action. 

Thus  stripped  of  fictitious  statements,  symbolic  forms, 
and  modes  of  revealment,  "  love's  devotion  to  the  per- 
fect," agonizing  because  conditioned  by  evil,  is  an 
atonement  for  sin,  a  ransom  for  sinners,  the  atoning 
fact. 


298 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   REVELATION   OF  ATONING   FACT. 

The  great  problem  is  to  restore  to  the  human  mind  something 
of  the  ideal.  —  Victor  Hugo. 

The  revelation  of  atonement  is  our  next  movement  in 
outlining  the  evolution  of  love.  Full  consideration  of 
this  subject  would  constitute  a  complete  Christology. 
But  our  present  limits  forbid  the  attempt  to  more  than 
briefly  indicate  two  things,  namely,  — 

1.  The  occasion  for  a  revelation  of  atonement. 

2.  The  fact  of  such  revelation,  in  Christ. 

The  occasion,  or  need  of  a  revealment  of  atoning  facts 
must  be  regarded  as  being  a  state  of  human  conditions 
which  demands  a  supernatural  intervention  by  divine  love 
in  order  to  make  good  to  man  those  conditions  which 
afford  the  basis  of  human  faith  and  love.  We  have  seen 
in  former  chapters  that  men  may  debase  their  natural 
conditions  by  abuses.  This  may  be  done  to  an  extent 
that  will  obscure,  perhaps  obliterate,  the  facts  upon  which 
human  faith  can  arise.  Abuses  wilfully  and  wickedly 
practised  by  one  person  may  corrupt  the  conditions  of 
a  family  or  neighborhood.  The  sins  of  a  generation 
become  the  debasing  tendencies  of  succeeding  genera- 
tions, who,  though  less  guilty,  may  become  more  gross, 
materialistic,  and  brutal.  Rejection  of  the  ideal  and 
devotion  to  actual  self  is  a  brute-like  life ;  and  the  ten- 
dency of  it  is  to  render  man  unsusceptible  to  spiritual 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT. 


299 


motives.  It  increases  his  desire  for  material  good  and 
pleasure,  and  deepens  his  unbelief  in  spiritual  interests. 
Spiritual  development  depends  upon  faith  in  the  unseen, 
the  ideal  perfections,  and  hence  is  impracticable  when 
the  implied  facts  in  which  faith  confides  are  obscured  by 
that  abuse  of  perceived  facts  which  makes  them  objects 
of  covetousness  and  brutality.  Thus,  eventually,  the 
authority,  the  need,  and  the  means  of  an  ideal  life  be- 
come obscured  from  those  who,  under  better  conditions, 
would  sincerely  follow  and  appropriate  them.  Persons 
and  communities  who  by  reason  of  superior  position 
and  power  can  elevate  or  depress  their  fellowmen,  by 
selfish  abuses,  place  in  jeopardy  the  ultimate  welfare 
of  these  fellow-beings.  Keeping  the  "key  of  knowl- 
edge" they  refuse  to  enter  and  prevent  those  who 
would.  Thus  it  is  possible  to  debase  the  conditions  of 
finite  life  until  they  are  not  only  abnormal,  but  wholly 
preternatural. 

Love  must  as  a  matter  of  justice  permit  these  debased 
conditions,  which  human  wickedness  and  weakness 
have  established,  to  work  the  immediate  destruction  of 
mankind,  or,  in  mercy,  reassert  and  maintain  the  condi- 
tions to  human  perfection  by  supernatural  intervention. 
The  former  would  be  to  surrender  the  object  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  the  latter  would  be  to  uphold  it  by  a  further  evo- 
lution of  love.  "  It  is  not,  indeed  a  question  of  what 
love  can  do,  but  what  love,  as  an  objective  determina- 
tion, must  and  will  do."  "  When  human  perversity 
misappropriates  the  benevolence  of  love  by  making  it 
the  occasion  for  selfishness,  and  prosperous  selfishness 
encourages  the  conviction  that  the  creation  is  favor- 
able or  at  least  indifferent  to  it,  or  resulting  adversity 
begets  despair,  what  manifestation  does  the   evolution 


,00  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

of  love  imply?  This  is  the  whole  question  ;  and  there 
can  be  but  one  reply :  The  supernatural "  (chapter  i., 
Part  II.). 

Victor  Hugo  seems  a  philosopher,  as  well  as  poet,  in 
such  sentences  as  these  :  "  The  great  problem  is  to 
restore  to  the  human  mind  something  of  the  ideal ; " 
"  The  ideal,  stable  type  of  ever-moving  progress  ;"  "  The 
ideal,  to  this  summit  God  descends,  man  rises."  An 
ancient  poet,  who  acknowledged  his  deep  trouble  from 
having  observed  the  prevalence  of  the  wicked,  found 
relief  when  he  paid  his  devotions  at  the  shrine  of  ideal 
perfection.     He  says  :  — 

"  When  I  thought  to  know  this 
It  was  too  painful  for  me 
Until  I  went  into  the  sanctuary  of  God ; 
Then  understood  I  their  end." 

These  poets,  living  amidst  the  most  civilized  and  in- 
fluential peoples  of  their  day,  perceived  the  human  need 
of  something  to  preserve  the  conditions  of  moral  recu- 
peration, but  did  they  recognize  the  method  by  which  it 
must  be  disclosed? 

As  the  development  of  human  selfishness  advanced, 
becoming  more  expanded,  complex,  and  intense,  and 
more  powerful  to  dominate  human  destiny,  the  test  of 
love's  ability  to  maintain  its  recognition  in  the  human 
consciousness  became  more  strenuous. 

It  would  be  in  the  order  of  our  outline  to  note 
the  stages  of  this  process,  and  to  emphasize  the  points 
at  which  darker-growing  phases  of  human  depravity 
have  evoked  higher  supernatural  manifestations  of  love. 
Especially  would  it  be  pertinent  to  distinguish  the 
points  in  human  history  where  the  natural  manifesta- 
tions of  divine  love  which  afford  the  facts  upon  which 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.        ^ol 

faith  is  based  have  been  eclipsed  or  wholly  perverted 
by  their  abuse ;  and  where  supernatural  revealments 
became  the  method  of  love's  effort  to  condition  faith 
among  men.  But,  as  other  portions  of  this  work 
sufficiently  outline  these  points,  they  will  not  be  con- 
sidered here. 

It  is  sufficient  to  note,  for  example,  that  human  his- 
tory has  been  largely  determined  with  reference  to  facts 
which  did  not  exist  at  the  time  of  such  determination, 
but  were  supernaturally  furnished  to  those  who  acted 
upon  them  and  assigned  as  the  data  of  the  religious  and 
political  institutions  which  they  founded  and  maintained. 
The  knowledge  of  these  unborn  facts  and  persons, 
though  it  could  not  be  gathered  from  existing  data,  was 
given  in  the  form  of  prophecy.  Its  object  was  to  con- 
dition the  then  present  conduct  of  those  to  whom  it  was 
revealed.  A  distinguished  illustration  of  history  which 
has  been  determined  upon  conditions  of  the  supernatural 
form  is  seen  in  the  present  existence  and  characteristics 
of  the  Hebrew  people.  It  is  undeniable  that  the  cen- 
tral meaning  of  their  prophecies  and  history  has  been 
the  Messianic,  or  Christ,  idea.  It  has  been  their  bless- 
ing or  bane  accordingly  as  toward  it  they  have  been 
faithful  or  recreant. 

The  Christian  peoples  of  the  earth,  numbering  about 
five  hundred  millions  of  souls,  with  institutions  and  re- 
sources of  unequalled  quality,  power,  and  beneficence, 
can  give  no  adequate  account  of  their  rise  and  progress, 
their  civilization,  and  the  superior  character  of  their  in- 
stitutions upon  wholly  natural  conditions.  The  central 
force  in  the  conditions  upon  which  their  progress  has 
been  determined  is,  undeniably,  the  Christ ;  and  this 
central  force  is  wholly  unaccountable  except  upon  the 


302 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


supernatural  disclosure  and  authentication  of  divine 
atonement  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

To  say  that  these  most  influential  movements  in 
human  history  to  afford  common  conditions  to  the 
people  for  individual  purity  and  progress  in  personal 
character  cannot  be  accounted  for  upon  other  than 
supernaturally  given  data  is  the  same  as  to  say  that 
divine  love  has  resorted  to  supernatural  means  to  avert 
the  hopeless  decay  and  destruction  of  humanity,  and  to 
do  this  has  thus  re-established  the  conditions  to  faith 
and  love.  And  all  this  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  these 
conditions,  as  naturally  given,  have  been  so  obscured 
at  times  as  to  establish  occasions  where  love  must  super- 
naturally intervene  ;  further,  that  the  supreme  crisis  in 
the  existing  conditions  to  human  determination  was 
the  occasion  for  the  revelation  of  atonement  in  the 
Christ. 

It  was  as  though  not  only  the  natural,  but  the  su- 
pernatural evolution  of  love,  which  had  afforded  the 
conditions  to  human  faith  in  past  history,  had  been 
thoroughly  perverted.  The  people  who  had  enjoyed 
the  most  advanced  supernatural  evolution  of  love,  fitting 
them  to  lead  the  human  race  in  the  determination  of 
personal  character,  had  abused  these  conditions,  had 
become  mercenary  and  oppressive.  Priest  and  teacher 
had  by  covetousness  "  altogether  gone  out  of  the  way  ;  " 
had  become  politically  and  religiously  devoted  to  tem- 
poral things,  instead  of  making  temporal  things  subserve 
an  ideal  life.  The  Roman  Empire,  which  now  dominated 
the  civilized  world,  had  become  the  foe  of  the  ideal  and 
the  devotee  of  the  actual.  "The  creature  rather  than 
the  Creator"  was  the  object  of  their  devotement. 
Though  the  Stoic  bewailed  it,  the  State  and  the  people 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.        3 03 

were  Epicurean.  A  few  held  that  the  life,  but  the  many 
and  the  powerful  held  that  to  possess  the  pleasures  of 
life,  was  the  chief  good.  It  was  as  though  a  benignant 
father  had  lavished  treasure  and  care  upon  wayward 
children,  which  implied  his  solicitude  for  their  reforma- 
tion and  love ;  had  gone  even  further  and  declared  in 
words,  what  his  gifts  had  implied,  his  plans,  his  power, 
and  his  wish  for  their  highest  welfare,  and  forewarned 
them  of  disaster.  But  at  last,  when  care  and  treasures, 
promises  and  warnings  had  exhausted  their  power  to 
lead  them  to  repentance,  the  inner,  but  infinite  solicitude 
of  love  bursts  forth  in  an  agony  of  tears  and  blood.  It 
was  the  solicitude  of  divine  love  which  when  disclosed 
to  a  human  consciousness  revealed  itself  to  the  world  in 
the  anguished  appeal  of  a  broken  heart. 

The  fact  of  such  revelation  in  Christ.  —  We  come  now 
to  consider  that  most  conspicuous  declaration  of  divine 
love  which  had  hitherto  arisen  in  human  history. 

The  Christ  idea  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  oldest 
ideas  in  possession  of  the  human  race.  It  seems  to  have 
been  held,  in  some  form  or  other,  by  so  many  tribes  and 
nations,  ancient  and  modern,  that  it  is  a  question  whether 
any  tribe  of  men  is  without  it  in  legend,  song,  or  story. 
Its  dim  outline  haunts  the  mists  of  prehistoric  times ; 
and  though  floating  like  a  distorted  wraith,  far  back  in 
unchronicled  ages  it  holds  a  weird  identity,  apart  from 
the  myths  which  mingle  there  in  shadowy  indistinctness. 

Whether  it  be  regarded  as  a  reflected  consensus  of 
human  need  in  all  ages,  or  the  more  or  less  corrupted 
form  of  a  revelation,  given  first  to  the  first  of  our  race, 
its  most  distinguishing  characteristic  is  that  the  Christ  is 
both  divine  and  human.  Trace  the  idea  wherever  you 
will  through  legend  or  myth  or  in  the  Pentateuch,  the 


304 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


Hebrew  Prophets  and  songs,  or  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
himself,  or  those  of  the  Apostles,  and  you  are  ever  con- 
fronted with  the  "  Son  of  God  "  and  the  "  Son  of  Man." 
Out  of  this  manifold,  two  faces  ever  look  upon  you  ;  one 
so  high-born  that  it  screens  its  majesty  within  the  other, 
which,  in  turn,  yields  itself  to  give  human  expression  to 
the  divine. 

The  sacred  Scriptures  have  a  clear  meaning  when 
regarded  as  chiefly  a  human  record  of  the  Messianic 
revelation  of  love  made  by  the  Creator.  Our  view  is 
simply  that  the  divine  personality  in  the  Christ  is  the 
Creator,  the  "  Only  Begotten,"  "  The  Eternal  Son,"  the 
true  and  living  God,  according  to  his  relative  mode  of 
self-determination.  This  relative  self-determination  in 
God  is  distinctly  set  out  in  the  chapter  entitled  "  Being, 
As  Conditioned ;  "  hence  need  not  be  further  defined 
here. 

The  human  being,  Jesus,  we  regard  as  a  creation,  a 
"  second  Adam  ;  "  a  person  who,  in  his  distinctly  human 
self-determination,  maintained  a  sinless  life  in  faithful 
subjection  to  and  loving  interaction  with  his  Creator,  in 
the  same  sense  in  which  man  in  his  original  state  did,  or 
was  intended  to  do.  Moreover,  in  his  harmony  with 
this  interaction  and  along  the  line  of  its  development, 
there  came  to  him  the  privilege  of  becoming  the  inter- 
preter of  the  subjective  consciousness  of  divine  love ; 
not  only  the  perfectly  interacting  companion,  but  the 
embodiment  and  expression  of  the  divine  consciousness, 
the  Creator,  in  the  same  sense  that  he  was  the  embodi- 
ment and  expression  of  his  own  human  consciousness. 

We  have  said  "it  became  his  privilege"  to  have 
the  divine  consciousness,  his  privilege  to  interpret  to 
man  the  subjective  consciousness  of  divine  love.      In 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT. 


3°5 


saying  this  we  do  not  forget  that  he  was  created  for  this 
very  purpose.  Nor  do  we  know  that  any  human  being, 
in  the  purity  and  accuracy  of  an  untarnished  nature, 
might  not  become  a  similar  interpreter.  But  there  was 
found  among  men  no  other  "  arm  to  save."  But  we 
must  not  forget  that  he  was  entirely  self-determining,  as 
a  man ;  that,  as  such,  he  determined  his  human  charac- 
ter without  sin ;  and  that  his  interpreting  the  divine  con- 
sciousness was  by  the  consent  of  his  human  volition. 
"  He  offered  himself  unto  God." 

The  gospel  records  contain  a  record  of  the  life,  teach- 
ings, and  acts  of  Jesus  as  the  Christ ;  and  if  we  regard 
these  as  records  of  a  movement  in  the  evolution  of  love, 
their  true  meaning  and  the  secret  of  their  world-wide 
dominance  will  appear.  They  are  simple  memoirs  of 
words  and  acts  which  have  remodelled  civilization  and 
directed  the  current  of  human  history  for  over  eighteen 
centuries,  and  are  rapidly  increasing  in  potency. 

The  prevalence  and  prominence  of  the  Christ  idea  in 
ancient  thought  naturally  gave  rise  to  pretenders  to  Mes- 
siahship.  We  have  sacred  and  secular  records  of  very 
early  and  frequent  claims  of  this  kind.  Indeed,  history 
and  poetry  are  full  of  the  claims  of  mighty  heroes  whose 
success  encouraged,  and  the  people  flattered  them  into 
either  the  pretence  or  belief  that  they  were  demigods. 
Alexander  the  Great,  it  is  said,  sought  to  make  this  claim. 
If  so,  he  was  among  the  later  warriors  who  claimed  the 
double  nature.  But  many  among  religious  teachers  had 
appeared.  Indeed,  the  general  expectancy  of  Messiah 
which  prevailed  in  the  civilized  world  in  the  day  of  the 
Caesars  seemed  to  beget  a  mania  for  Messianic  preten- 
sions. Because  of  this  state  of  things  some  writers  have 
jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  Jesus  was  simply  one  of 


,o6  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

these  pretenders.  But  such  a  conclusion  implies  certainly 
a  very  superficial  view  of  the  case  ;  and  these  writers  seem 
merely  to  have  "  lost  their  heads  "  amid  the  abundant 
and  curious  information  on  this  subject.  The  widely 
extended  knowledge  of  the  Christ  idea,  and  the  widely 
felt  need  of  authoritative  or  other  valid  teaching  in  both 
religion  and  philosophy,  together  with  the  general  under- 
tone of  dissatisfaction  with  Rome,  had  doubtless  inten- 
sified this  expectancy.  But  the  widely  diffused  knowledge 
of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  and  the  notorious  Jewish  expec- 
tation of  a  deliverer  had  already  reduced  the  vagary  of 
public  opinion  to  the  accuracy  which  conceded  that  "  sal- 
vation is  of  the  Jews."  Hence  an  appeal  to  the  Jewish 
Scriptures  found  the  original  stock  of  prophecy  and 
promise  which,  by  force  of  its  antiquity  and  its  logical  and 
ethical  coherency,  is  manifestly  that  which  had  founded 
the  idea,  the  literature,  and  general  expectancy,  as  well  as 
afforded  all  the  corruptions  and  false  pretensions  which 
have  clustered  around  Messiahship. 

The  identification  of  the  Christ  became  naturally  a 
question  of  importance,  in  view  of  the  rise  of  so  many 
pretenders,  and  the  alacrity  with  which  the  expectant 
people  took  up  with  them.  Scepticism  regarding  the 
Messianic  claimants  had  also  become  well  developed 
among  the  thoughtful  and  educated.  But  an  appeal  to 
the  written  records  of  the  actual  promises  and  proph- 
ecies was  the  means  of  escape  from  myth  and  sham. 
Saint  Paul,  in  the  opening  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
recognizes  that  in  announcing  himself  as  an  apostle  of 
Jesus  the  question  which  will  arise  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  at  Rome  is  this  :  How  are  we  to  know  that  the 
Messianic  claims  of  Jesus  are  genuine?  He  squarely 
anticipates  and  answers  this  question  in  the  outset,  by 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.        ^0j 

stating  that  Jesus  is  identified  as  true  Christ  in  both  the 
human  and  divine  natures  of  Messiahship ;  that  in  the 
human  department  he  is  shown  by  the  concurrence  of 
prophecy  to  be  the  chosen  of  the  house  of  David ;  and 
in  the  divine  nature  designated  by  the  exercise  of  power, 
in  his  resurrection  from  the  dead,  to  be  the  Son  of  God. 
These  statements  evince  the  alertness  which  existed 
regarding  this  question  of  true  Messianic  identity,  and 
also  of  the  methods  and  standard  by  which  it  must  be 
decided.  The  Messianic  records  made  the  requisite 
characteristics  so  minute  that  it  was  impossible  that 
more  than  one  claimant  could  meet  their  requirements. 
They  unfold  a  vast  series  of  facts,  beginning  with  the 
announcement  of  a  Redeemer  to  Adam  and  ending  with 
Malachi's  vision  of  the  rising  "  Sun  of  Righteousness  " 
with  healing  in  his  beams.  So  full,  so  minute,  though 
incompatible  with  human  anticipation,  were  the  facts 
predicted  of  the  Messiah  that  one  has  well  said  :  "  By  a 
change  of  tenses  prophecy  may  in  many  cases  be  turned 
into  biography,  and  so  peculiarly  that  in  Jesus  only,  of 
all  the  human  race,  can  the  lines  of  Messianic  promise 
meet."  The  family,  time,  and  place  of  his  advent  are 
given  by  different  prophets  in  different  ages,  but  concur 
in  identifying  the  "  Babe  of  Bethlehem,"  of  the  family  of 
David,  at  the  appointed  time,  the  dissolving  of  Judah's 
nationality.  In  the  Gospels  Jesus  is  identified  at  his  birth 
as  chosen  for  the  Messiahship,  so  definitely  as  to  leave 
no  possible  ground  for  the  pretensions  of  any  other. 
His  being  a  special  creation,  "a  second  Adam,"  untainted 
by  racial  evil,  is  not  only  stated  as  fact,  but  emphasized 
by  circumstantial  and  collateral  facts.  To  any  one  who 
accepts  the  Messianic  records,  these  external  designa- 
tions of  Jesus  as  the  true  Christ  are  conclusive. 


3°8 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


But  to  all,  of  any  faith,  Jesus  evinced  internal  evi- 
dence that  his  life,  teachings,  and  acts  marked  an  advance 
in  the  evolution  of  divine  love  in  its  effort  to  condition 
human  faith  in  love's  ideal  life.  And  this  is  the  same  as 
to  say  that  he  was  identified  as  the  Son  of  God. 

As  a  man,  his  faith  was  perfect.  That  is  to  say, 
he  perfectly  subjected  his  actual  life  to  the  ideal, 
and  consequently  developed  an  ideal  manhood.  He  is 
regarded  to-day  as  indisputably  the  one  perfect  man  of 
all  history.  In  him  self-love,  devotion  to  the  actualiza- 
tion of  an  ideal  self,  is  complete,  —  without  a  taint  of 
selfishness.  Thus  he  maintained  perfectly  harmonious 
interaction  with  his  Creator,  and  was,  consequently, 
"  holy,  harmless,  undefiled."  Inasmuch  as  truth  is  the 
theoretic  which  may  be  explicated  from  the  ideal,  his 
was  a  true  life  in  every  aspect  and  relation  which  he 
held.  Thus  he  illustrated  the  evolution  of  love  in  its 
human  conditions.  "  The  character  of  Jesus  as  it  is 
depicted  in  the  Evangelists  is  one  of  unequalled 
excellence.  This  is  universally  admitted.  It  is  not  a 
character  made  up  of  negative  virtues  alone,  where  the 
sole  merit  is  the  absence  of  culpable  traits.  It  has 
positive,  strongly  marked  features.  It  combines  piety, 
an  absorbing  love  and  loyalty  to  God,  with  philanthropy, 
a  love  to  men  without  any  alloy  of  selfishness,  and  too 
strong  to  be  conquered  by  their  injustice  and  ingratitude. 
It  unites  thus,  in  perfect  harmony,  the  qualities  of  the 
saint  and  of  the  philanthropist.  It  blends  holiness  with 
compassion  and  gentleness.  There  is  no  compromise 
with  evil,  no  consent  to  the  least  wrong-doing,  even  in  a 
friend  or  follower.  But  with  this  purity  there  is  a  deep 
well  of  tenderness,  a  spirit  of  forgiveness  which  never 
fails.     With  the   active  virtues,  with  an  intrepidity  that 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.         ^oq 

quailed  before  none,  however  high  in  station  and  public 
esteem,  there  are  connected  the  passive  virtues  of  pa- 
tience, forbearance,  meekness.  The  world  beholds  in 
Jesus  its  ideal  of  goodness."  1 

"  It  was  reserved  for  Christianity  to  present  to  the 
world  an  ideal  character,  which  through  all  the  changes 
of  eighteen  centuries  has  inspired  the  hearts  of  men  with 
an  impassioned  love,  has  shown  itself  capable  of  acting 
on  all  nations,  ages,  temperaments,  and  conditions,  has 
been  not  only  the  highest  pattern  of  virtue,  but  the 
strongest  incentive  to  its  practice,  and  has  exercised  so 
deep  an  influence  that  it  may  be  truly  said  that  the 
simple  record  of  three  short  years  of  active  life  has  done 
more  to  regenerate  and  soften  mankind  than  all  the  dis- 
quisitions of  philosophers  and  all  the  exhortations  of 
moralists."  2 

But  in  addition  to  the  ideal  human  character  of  Jesus 
there  was  manifested  by  him  a  class  of  actions  which  he 
himself  professed  were  the  actions  of  the  uSon  of 
God  ;  "  and  these  were  actions  which  were  recognized  as 
at  least  superhuman  by  all  who  witnessed  them.  Ration- 
alism has  sought  to  dispute  the  supernatural  character 
of  these  actions  ;  apparently  blind  to  the  impossibility  of 
a  person  of  moral  and  mental  accuracy  professing  their 
supernatural,  their  divine  origin,  if  such  it  were  not. 
But  rationalists  have  successfully  shown  up  one  another's 
failures  to  account  for  Christ  and  Christianity,  without 
admitting  the  supernatural ;  and  have  neutralized  one  an- 
other's theories.  Baur  exploded  Strauss'  theory  of  myth, 
and  Strauss  exposed  the  failure  and  evasion  of  Baur's 
historical  theory ;  while  Renan's  romancing  was  a  mere 

1  Professor  Fisher,  Manual  of  Christian  Evidences. 

2  Lecky's  Hist,  of  European  Morals,  vol.  ii.  p.  9. 


310  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

parasite  of  Strauss  '  theory,  and  perished  with  that  theory. 

The  mutual  neutralization  of  rationalistic  theories  is  the 

grand  outcome  of  rationalism. 

This  self-confessed  failure  may  be  thus  stated,  — 

i.  It  is  conceded  that  its  writers  have  not  adhered  to 

the  records. 

2.  They  have  failed  to  explain  the  moral  and  religious 
revolution  produced  by  Christianity. 

3.  Their  solution  of  the  person  of  Christ  is  inadequate. 

4.  They  fail  to  account  for  the  Christ  idea. 

5.  They  fail  to  replace  to  the  heart  the  power  of  the 
gospel. 

6.  They  were  forced  to  abandon  the  Christian  idea  of 
God  and  adopt  that  of  deism  or  pantheism.  (After 
Christlieb.) 

Later  rationalistic  attempts,  especially  in  Great  Bri- 
tain and  America  have  been  in  the  nature  of  efforts 
to  gather  up  and  revive  the  shattered  remains  of  Ger- 
man failures.  A  few  magazine  writers,  novelists,  and 
lecturers,  probably  unaware  of  the  true  line  of  living 
issues,  have  patched  together  the  rags  of  worn-out  and 
cast-off  German  failures,  and  have  strutted  in  what  they 
have  conceived  to  be  an  array  of  "advanced  thought." 

Perceptions,  intuitions,  judgments,  affections,  and  vo- 
litions which  must  have  been  divine,  made  him,  with  his 
consent  and  co-operation,  their  interpreter  to  the  world. 
Along  the  line  of  this  subjection  of  his  nature  to  God 
these  divine  actions  were  put  forth.  They  superseded 
his  human  need  of  learning,  answered  the  queries  and 
silenced  the  arguments  of  the  learned,  and  compelled  all 
to  recognize  him  as  a  perfect  teacher,  though  he  had 
never  been  a  pupil,  but  always  a  master  among  men. 
He  read  the  inner  thoughts  and  intentions  of  men  as  an 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.         ^1 

open  book.  If  there  were  nothing  else  to  mark  the 
divine  intelligence  in  his  teachings,  the  wonderful  fore- 
sight of  his  conceptions  would  be  sufficient.  They  teach 
an  inner  character  and  outer  practice  for  man  toward 
which  humanity  has  been  growing  for  eighteen  centuries, 
but  has  not  yet  reached.  All  must  admit  that  when 
civilization  shall  realize  these  teachings  the  "golden 
age,"  the  ideal  age,  will  have  been  attained.  His  insight 
rejected  the  methods  by  which  the  wisest  of  men  seek 
success.  He  adopted  those  methods  which,  in  the  eyes 
of  human  wisdom,  stamped  him  as  a  weakling  and  cow- 
ard, but  are  now  seen  to  have  been  dictated  by  the  only 
possible  conditions  to  universal  and  perpetual  dominion, 
—  the  dominion  of  ideal  being,  the  ideal  universe. 

Miracles  were  a  class  of  his  actions  to  which  he  re- 
ferred his  critics  as  the  ultimate  proof  that  the  Creator 
was  revealed  in  him.  The  object  of  this  class  of  actions 
was,  first,  to  enable  men  to  identify  their  author  as  the 
Creator ;  secondly,  to  place  men  in  possession  of  the 
fact  that  the  nature  of  the  Creator  is  love,  that  the  Cre- 
ator is  a  merciful  Saviour.  This  was  done  in  miracles 
purely  physical;  then  in  physico-spiritual  miracles,  in 
which  diseases  were  healed  and  sins  forgiven.  Thus  in 
physical  miracles  was  begun  a  progressive  system  of 
divine  revealment  which  passed  from  physical  miracles 
to  physico-spiritual,  and  thence  to  the  purely  spiritual 
manifestation  of  divine  love  as  a  purifying  agent  in  the 
human  affections. 

The  possession,  by  sincere  men,  of  these  two  facts, 
the  personal  Creator  and  Saviour,  gave  them  the  condi- 
tions of  recovery  from  selfishness  and  of  return  to  com- 
panionship with  God.  The  sincere  were  conscious  of 
the  need  of  access  to  the  actualized  ideal,  the  perfect. 


^12  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

The  actually  perfect  was  revealed  in  these  two  facts ; 
and  his  sacred  authority  was  reasserted  to  them.  More- 
over, the  means  of  recovering  devotement  to  the  ideal, 
by  accepting  the  Creator  as  a  loving  Saviour,  was  placed 
within  their  reach.  To  settle,  for  the  people,  then  and 
there,  the  fact  of  the  Creator,  wielding  the  forces  of 
nature  and  the  fact  that  the  creator  is  a  God  who  saves 
from  sin  by  means  of  love,  settled  for  them  the  founda- 
tion of  "faith  that  works  by  love." 

When  his  followers  should  be  sufficiently  weaned  from 
the  actual  and  wooed  to  the  ideal  life  which  he  con- 
stantly kept  before  them,  by  word  and  deed ;  when,  in 
other  words,  their  hopes  were  turned  from  the  formal  to 
the  spiritual,  they  should  not  need  the  continuance  of 
physical  miracles.  Their  faith  should  then  be  able  to 
grasp  the  purely  spiritual  reality  of  God  and  his  love ; 
and  a  work  greater  than  physical  miracles  results  to  their 
spiritual  experience,  restoring  them  to  conscious  har- 
mony with  the  Creator.  Upon  this  purely  spiritual  phe- 
nomenon all  that  makes  Christianity  worth  preserving 
has  been  propagated.  It  contains  in  it  the  facts  of  God 
as  Creator  and  Saviour,  self-dependent,  holy,  and  be- 
nevolent. It  is  the  restoration  to  man  of  ideal  being 
actualized  in  God  and  actualizable  by  man. 

The  gradual  manifestation  of  the  divine  consciousness 
in  Jesus  is  to  be  noted.  Doubtless,  such  gradual  mani- 
festation to  those  among  whom  he  worked  was  needful 
for  them ;  and  it  is  a  natural  inference  that  as  God  thus 
gradually  unfolded  love's  supernatural  declaration  to 
men,  through  him,  his  consciousness  of  God  in  him 
should  be  gradually  developed. 

The  mysteriousness  of  our  spiritual  nature  is,  of 
course,  acknowledged  on  all  hands,  yet  the  fact  of  our 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.        3I, 

conscious  being  is  the  first,  broadest,  and  surest  knowl- 
edge we  have.  Although  we  are  "  most  ignorant "  of 
the  mode  "  of  what  we  are  most  assured  "  as  a  fact,  yet 
the  significance  of  the  facts  it  reveals  to  us  cannot  be 
slighted  because  we  do  not  understand  the  mode  in 
which  they  subsist. 

Consciousness  is  the  knowledge  of  these  facts  ;  and 
as  we  become  conscious  of  these  facts  we  recognize  and 
act  upon  them  as  our  own  selfhood.  The  rise  of  this 
selfhood  is  gradual  and  systematic.  It  is  a  self-conscious 
unit,  gradually  becoming  conscious  of  its  powers  and 
susceptibilities.  From  the  dawn  of  conscious  sensation 
we  progress  into  the  consciousness  of  perception,  com- 
parison, reason,  emotion,  self-determination  and  moral 
consciousness.  Thus  gradually  different  phases  of 
consciousness  arise  within  us,  as  occasions  in  and  around 
us  call  them  into  exercise.  They  arise,  not  one  after 
another,  by  abrupt  divisions,  but  rather  running  into, 
gradually  superinducing  and  overlapping  one  another; 
one  in  process  of  arising  while  another  is  definitely  exer- 
cised ;  some  gradually  affording  the  occasion  for  the 
gradual  rise  of  others.  While  they  are  simply  different 
classes  of  action  of  which  the  one  person  becomes  con- 
scious, yet  these  actions  are  so  distinct  in  our  conscious- 
ness of  them  that  they  are,  severally,  termed  orders,  or 
forms,  of  consciousness.  But  when  so  designating  them 
we  do  not  profess  to  understand  the  modes  of  their  sub- 
sistence or  differentiation,  but  we  simply  and  unavoid- 
ably recognize  and  act  in  pursuance  of  them  as  facts  of 
which  man  gradually  becomes  conscious.  In  the  same 
sense,  when  we  speak  of  the  divine  consciousness  in 
Christ,  it  is  not  an  attempt  to  explain  the  mode  of  its 
subsistence  with  the  human  person  in  whom  the  divine 


3J4 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


consciousness  arose,  but  we  simply  and  unavoidably 
recognize  the  fact  of  the  gradual  development  of  divine 
self-consciousness  in  him  and  the  manifestation  of  divine 
powers  and  susceptibilities  by  him. 

Psychologically,  it  seems  only  a  question  whether  the 
action  of  the  Creator,  which  constitutes  our  nature  and 
sustains  the  conditions  upon  which  our  own  personal 
action  arises,  may  not  himself  act  volitionally  also,  as 
we  do,  upon  and  by  this  same  nature.  What  we  term 
our  natural  powers  are  simply  the  actions  of  our  Creator, 
of  which  he  is  perfectly  conscious.  The  use  of  these 
powers  is  our  own  personal  action ;  and  it  is  only  in 
their  use  that  we  become  aware  of  them.  This  use  is 
our  interaction  with  the  Creator ;  and  our  consciousness, 
in  whatever  form  it  may  be,  is  simply  our  knowledge  of 
our  part  of  this  interaction.  Now  there  is  no  ground 
upon  which  we  can  deny  or  doubt  that  the  Creator  may 
not  only  consciously  afford  these  powers  for  our  use,  but 
also  use  them  for  himself. 

There  is  one  exception  to  this  statement  that  the 
Creator  may  use  as  well  as  furnish  our  natural  powers. 
It  is  this  :  such  of  these  powers  as  are  used  only  as  we 
will  are  powers  which  the  Creator  has  put  it  out  of  his 
hands  to  use,  except  with  our  consent.  That  is  to  say 
that  our  will  is  out  own  action,  and  that  which  we  only 
can  do  cannot  be  employed  by  the  Creator  unless  we 
consent  to  act  with  him.  Hence,  for  example,  the 
attention  we  give  to  our  sensations  in  order  that  we 
may  have  definite  perceptions,  and  which  we  give  to 
comparing  these  and  forming  judgments  whereupon 
emotions  are  aroused  in  us,  is  our  own  voluntary  act. 
The  intentions  which  are  formed  by  selection  of  motives 
are  also  purely  our  personal  act ;  and  the  carrying-out 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.         ^* 

of  these  intentions,  which  is  determination,  belongs  to  the 
same  class.  Attention,  intention,  and  determination,  in 
any  person,  are  his  own  acts  which  constitute  uses  of 
his  created  powers  and  render  him  conscious  of  those 
powers.  Hence  it  is  correct  to  say  that  while  the 
Creator's  action  posits  our  natural  powers,  he  cannot 
determine  their  use  without  our  consent.  Assuming, 
however,  that  a  man  consents  to  the  use  of  his  powers 
by  the  Creator,  there  is  no  ground  or  datum  upon  which 
any  one  can  say  it  is  impossible,  impracticable,  irrational, 
or  improbable  that,  upon  fit  occasion,  they  should  be  so 
used. 

It  is  quite  apparent,  also,  that  the  Creator's  reasoning, 
devotement,  sympathy,  and  energy,  when  employing  the 
natural  power  or  faculty  of  any  man  as  an  instrument, 
must  render  that  man  conscious  of  them.  They  must 
become  self-conscious  in  that  man,  as  certainly  and 
definitely  as  though  they  were  his  own  acts.  God's  con- 
scious perceiving,  reasoning,  wishing,  loving,  intending, 
determining  must  develop  in  the  consciousness  of  the 
man.  This  is  just  as  natural  and  inevitable  as  it  is  that 
the  forms  of  human  consciousness  develop  by  man's 
own  use  of  his  powers. 

Hence  it  must  also  be  clear  that  the  human  choice 
which  consents  to  this  divine  action  with  him  will  main- 
tain a  clear  discrimination  of  the  divine  consciousness 
through  all  its  developments.  Now,  we  do  not  say  that 
the  divine  consciousness  becomes  a  unit  with  the 
human  consciousness,  nor  say  what  the  two,  as  self- 
discriminated,  hold  in  common.  This  would  be  to 
attempt  what  we  distinctly  regard  as  beyond  our  pene- 
tration. But  we  do  say  that  there  is  no  ground 
whatever  for  scepticism  regarding  the  possibility  or  prob- 


316 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


ability  of  the  Creator's  expressing  his  thought,  intention, 
wish,  or  will  from  the  same  point  in  his  own  action  at 
which  he  conditions  the  rise  of  a  man's  consciousness 
and  volition.  Nor  is  there  ground  for  denying  that  such 
expression  by  the  Creator  is  the  using  of  the  nature  of  a 
conscious  human  being ;  that  such  use  must  be  con- 
ditioned upon  the  consent  of  such  human  being ;  that 
such  conceded  use  must  render  that  human  being 
conscious  of  the  divine  perception,  thought,  intention, 
love,  or  energy  thus  expressed  through  him ;  or  that 
this  condition,  namely,  the  man's  consent,  must  maintain 
in  his  own  consciousness  a  discrimination  of  what  is 
divine  and  what  is   human. 

Possibly  some  may  assert  that  creative  action  in  us 
has  not  posited  the  conditions  of  any  forms  of  human 
consciousness  other  or  higher  than  what  men  usually 
develop.  How  can  we  know  that?  Our  only  means 
of  knowing  what  powers  are  conditioned  in  us  is  in 
becoming  conscious  of  our  powers  by  exercising  them. 
Until  exercised  we  are  unaware  of  them.  We  can 
affirm  what  we  have  consciously  acted  upon,  but  can 
neither  affirm  nor  deny  what  our  action  has  not,  as  yet, 
developed  to  consciousness.  In  his  present  animalism 
it  is  a  marvel  and  mystery  that  man  should  develop  the 
higher  modes  of  rational  consciousness.  Why  man 
should  transcend  the  brute  which  is  conscious  of  sen- 
sation, perception,  comparison,  and  volition,  and  yet  does 
not  become  conscious  of  logic  or  moral  sense,  is  as 
mysterious  to  us  as  that  a  sinless  human  being  should 
experience  the  divine  personality  self-conscious  within 
him.  No  man  is  in  a  position  to  deny  that  any  human 
being,  who,  in  the  clearness  and  correctness  of  his 
created   nature,    carries    forward    his  self-determination 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.         ^If 

in  harmonious  interaction  with  his  Creator  may  not  de- 
velop the  conditions  of  a  divine  consciousness  within 
himself. 

Since  the  various  forms  of  human  consciousness  are 
not  developed  at  once,  but  gradually  and  by  use,  it  is 
easy  to  understand  that  the  divine  consciousness  would 
arise  in  Jesus,  only  as  he  should  become  the  instrument 
of  divine  action  of  various  kinds  and  degrees.  Hence, 
to  think  upon  the  subject  intelligently  is  to  think  of 
Christ  as  a  created,  sinless,  human  being,  who  con- 
sented, or  yielded  himself  to  be  the  instrument  of  the 
Creator's  personal  revealment  to  men.  Though  he  was 
created  for  this  mission,  yet  he  was  not  necessitated  to 
it,  but  freely  "  offered  himself  unto  God  "  as  the  inter- 
pretation or  expression  of  the  "Only  Begotten,"  the 
Creator  and  lover  of  man. 

It  seems  clear,  then,  that  the  creator  gradually  dis- 
closed himself  in  Jesus,  in  the  process  of  revealing  his 
love  to  man.  Jesus,  thus  gradually  becoming  conscious 
of  the  divine  consciousness,  gradually  developed  the 
effect  upon  himself  of  that  God-consciousness.  He 
spake,  acted,  and  endured  as  God,  though  he  continued 
to  often  speak,  act,  and  suffer,  as  a  man  ;  yet  recognizing 
the  divine  "  Sonship  "  when  speaking  as  God.  The 
Gospel  records  note  this  "  effect "  from  time  to  time. 

His  own  professions  and  doings  plainly  evinced  the 
graduality  of  this  development.  At  the  age  of  twelve  he 
showed  divine  perceptions  to  the  "  doctors,"  in  the 
temple,  and  was  conscious  that  he  was  "about  his 
Father's  business."  In  his  baptism  he  publicly  professed 
to  be  set  apart  to  the  Messianic  mission ;  professed  his 
consent,  as  a  man,  to  be  used  as  the  medium  of  special 
divine  ministration. 


3i8 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


This  man,  Jesus,  conscious  now  that  he  had  "  offered 
himself  unto  God "  to  be  his  instrument  of  personal 
communication  to  men,  sought  a  period  of  isolation, 
wherein,  for  forty  days  of  fasting  and  prayer,  he  reas- 
sured his  faith  and  settled  himself  in  adjustment  to  this 
unique  and  exalted  capacity.  In  this  peculiar  relation 
to  God  peculiar  temptations  must  have  beset  him,  but 
these  were  met  and  repelled  by  that  unswerving  faith 
which  was  the  perfect  subservience  of  his  actual  self  to 
the  promptings  and  behests  of  that  Messianic  ideal  which 
was  gradually  disclosing  to  him.  To  have  this  ideal 
gradually  unfolded  to  him,  that  he  might  actualize  it, 
"  the  stable  type  of  ever-moving  progress,"  was  his  life- 
scheme,  —  a  life  which  lived  upon  "  every  word  that  pro- 
ceeded out  of  the  mouth  of  God."  As  new  advances 
of  divine  action,  upon  occasion,  arose  upon  his  con- 
sciousness, new  cares  and  more  strenuous  tests  of  his 
faith  pressed  upon  him.  In  seasons  of  solitude  and 
prayer  he  ever  and  anon  brought  himself  up  to  the 
intent  of  these  new  revealments.  As  he  went  forward 
and  demonstrated  them  to  the  world  his  spirit  triumphed 
and  rejoiced  in  the  achievement.  We  see  him  thus  in 
what  has  been  termed  his  "  mediatorial  prayer  "  (John 
xvii.),  rejoicing  in  such  harmony  of  divine  and  human 
consciousness  that  he  speaks  as  the  "  Eternal  Son  "  who 
had  completed  his  earthly  ministry.  The  complete  and 
rapturous  appropriation  of  the  human  by  the  divine 
nature  seems  the  grand  feature  of  his  exultation.  The 
divine  Son  exclaims  through  the  human  Jesus :  "  O 
Father,  glorify  me  with  thine  own  self,  with  the  glory 
which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was." 

But  this  does  not  evince  the  entire  revealment  of  the 
Creator  and  Saviour.     It  only  shows  a  completed  stage 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.        ^g 

or  gradation,  in  the  process  of  the  Creators  revealing 
himself  in  the  consciousness  of  Jesus.  It  is  a  long 
psychic  distance  from  this  stage  to  that  where  he  de- 
clares to  his  disciples,  "  All  authority  hath  been  given 
unto  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye  therefore  and 
make  disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing  them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Spirit;  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever 
I  command  :  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  always,  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world." 

Between  these  widely  differing  degrees  of  the  divine 
consciousness  in  Jesus  he  manifested  definite  advances. 
But  a  brief  time  passes  after  his  exultation  because  of 
having  finished  his  ministry,  before  we  find  him  in  Geth- 
semane  weighed  down  with  mental  agony.  Although 
the  divine  Son  had  definitely  and  openly  prompted  him 
to  speak  of  "  the  glory  he  had  "  with  the  Father  "  be- 
fore the  world  was,"  now,  we  are  told,  "  he  began  to  be 
greatly  amazed  and  sore  troubled."  He  said  to  his 
disciples,  "  My  soul  is  exceeding  sorrowful,  even  unto 
death ; "  and  falling  on  his  face  he  exclaimed,  "  O  my 
Father,  if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  pass  from  me." 

Whether  Jesus  had  upon  former  occasions,  when  new 
phases  of  divine  consciousness  unfolded  in  him,  expe- 
rienced such  a  severe  test  of  his  willingness  to  interpret 
God,  we  are  not  informed.  We  are  told  of  his  many 
long  seasons  of  fasting  and  prayer,  but  the  circumstan- 
tial character  of  the  record  here  leaves  no  doubt  that 
he  was  appalled  to  a  degree  that  tested  his  devotion  to 
the  utmost.  Nor  was  it  the  simple  imminence  of  death 
that  terrified  him.  He  had  known  and  spoken  with 
composure  of  his  death,  as  a  fact  which  was  soon  to 
transpire,  but  when  he  began  to  be  conscious  of  the 


320  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

infinite  stress  which  divine  love  sustained  between  per- 
fect devotion  to  ideal  being  and  saving  benevolence  to 
sinners  he  was  amazed  and  appalled.  Its  interpretation 
was  more  awful  than  death.  It  was  more  agonizing 
than  contemplated  crucifixion.  He  seemed  to  pause  in 
his  great  undertaking.  But  when  by  persistent,  agoniz- 
ing prayer  he  had  become  adjusted  to  this  new  evolu- 
tion of  love  in  him  he  was  able  to  say  :  "  Nevertheless, 
not  my  will,  but  thine  be  done." 

An  unfaltering  actualization  of  his  ideal  as  a  human 
instrument  of  divine  disclosure  marks  his  course  from 
this  point  until  we  find  him  in  the  agonies  of  crucifix- 
ion. So  complete  was  the  subjection  of  the  human  to 
the  divine,  and  so  great  had  the  preponderance  of  the 
divine  manifestation  become,  that  his  human  nature 
seems  now  but  actuated  by  the  divine  mind.  It  seems 
so  because  of  the  perfect  surrender  of  his  human  will 
and  the  sympathy  of  his  human  feelings,  now  wholly  pre- 
occupied with  interpreting  the  divine  consciousness 
rapidly  and  overwhelmingly  unfolding  within  him.  He 
had  told  the  high-priest  of  his  approaching  divine  sov- 
ereignty and  glory,  and  had  announced  to  the  Roman 
governor  that  he  should  lay  down  his  life  of  himself, 
and  that  no  man  had  power  to  take  his  life  from  him ; 
that  he  held  an  independent  life,  and  could  lay  down  or 
take  up  its  human  revelation  at  will.  He  permitted  the 
crucifixion  to  proceed,  but  he  knew  that  the  divine 
agony  of  love  must  reveal  itself  in  him  before  the  cross 
could  cause  his  physical  death.  And  on  the  cross  he 
manifested  an  agony  to  which  he  had  yielded  himself, 
which  contrasted  strangely  and  immeasurably  with  that 
of  the  thieves  who  were  suffering  crucifixion  beside  him, 
or  with  the  uncomplaining  endurance  he  had  previously 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.         32I 

evinced  as  "  a  man  of  sorrows,  acquainted  with  grief." 
The  words  in  which  he   expressed  his  state  of  mind 
while  undergoing  this  suffering  show :  — 
i.    As  a  man  he  died  faithful  to  God. 

2.  He  died  of  mental  agony. 

3.  This  was  the  revelation  of  divine  love  in  its  agony 
of  devotion  to  ideal  being  while  conditioning  the  salva- 
tion and  perfection  of  sinners  by  extended  benevolence. 
He  had  formerly  rejoiced  in  revealing  the  divine  con- 
sciousness of  truth, — rejoiced  in  exhibitions  of  divine 
power  in  proof  of  his  Christly  mission ;  but  now  the 
divine  consciousness  fills  him  with  a  sense  of  the  agony 
of  divine  love,  that  love  which  has  exhausted  argu- 
ment and  cannot  invoke  power  to  enforce  reciproca- 
tion, belief,  or  obedience.  That  love,  which  is  the  unit 
in  which  perfect  holiness  and  perfect  benevolence  in- 
here, must  simply  endure  man's  free  perversion  of  its 
amenities  in  order  that  it  may  maintain  the  position  in 
which  it  can  pardon  the  sinner  and  help  him  back  to  a 
holy  and  loving  companionship,  when  he  voluntarily 
shall  renounce  his  sin. 

This  is  the  hour  of  the  revelation  to  man  of  this  help- 
less divine  agony.  In  the  interpretation  of  this  "  aton- 
ing fact  "  Jesus  derives  no  relief  from  it  by  means  of  the 
divine  power  or  prevision  which  had  at  other  times  sus- 
tained him.  He  exclaims  :  "  My  God,  my  God,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  Yet  he  does  not  waver  in 
his  will  as  the  interpreter,  the  revealer  of  God's  atoning 
attitude,  love's  deepest  consciousness  in  its  evolution, 
but  freely  "offers  himself  unto  God."  Having  said, 
"  Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commit  my  spirit,"  he  closes 
the  dying  agony  with  the  exclamation,  "  It  is  finished." 

Thus  in  agony  he  revealed  divine  love's  devotion  to 


322 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


the  realization  of  a  perfect  universe.  Thus  "he  was 
delivered  "  to  set  before  men  the  solicitude  which  divine 
love  endures  because  of  "our  offences."  Thus  he 
translated  the  great  "  atoning  fact "  into  human  terms, 
that  it  might  condition  the  salvation  of  the  world  by  its 
full  revelation  of  love's  ideal  life,  the  unimpaired  au- 
thority of  that  ideal  and  the  beneficent  means  of  its 
realization. 

But  the  evidence  that  this  death  is  atoning  suffering 
is  afforded  to  man  in  order  that  it  may  effectually  re- 
establish the  conditions  to  human  recovery  from  sin. 
The  object  of  divine  revealment  to  men,  we  have  seen, 
is  to  evince  that  divine  benevolence,  which  permits  our 
race  to  continue  its  sinful  course,  does  not  renounce 
holiness,  has  not  surrendered  perfect  intention,  is  not 
lax  in  its  devotion  to  ideal  being,  but  is  at  one  with 
holiness  and  is  intended  to  "lead  to  repentance."  It 
is  to  evince  that  although  mercy  affords  all  but  limitless 
opportunity  to  evil,  it  is  nevertheless  a  protest  against 
it  and  an  infinite  motive  to  renouncing  it ;  to  evince 
that,  upon  renunciation  of  sin,  the  sinner  may  find  help 
in  divine  love  to  return  to  purity  and  companionship 
with  God ;  and  thus  evince  infinite  love  as  a  motive  to 
man's  eternal  security  in  freedom  and  harmony  with  an 
ideal  universe.  That  this  divine  agony  may  thus  be 
clearly  identified  to  human  intelligence  as  "  the  atoning 
fact,"  in  all  its  phases,  its  atoning  quality  must  be  de- 
monstrated. In  a  word,  dependent  man  must  find  in 
it  the  independent  basis  of  salvation. 

The  resurrection  of  Christ  is  this  demonstration.  "  He 
was  raised  again  for  our  justification,"  —  our  proof,  or 
vindication.  To  Pilate,  who  had  sentenced  him  to 
death,  to  the  soldiery,  who  had  executed  the  sentence, 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.        323 

to  the  priests  and  mob,  at  whose  behest  sentence  and 
execution  were  accomplished,  his  agony  seemed  but 
punishment.  To  some,  of  more  kindly  mood,  it  prob- 
ably seemed  a  pitiably  disastrous  ending  of  a  noble  life. 
There  are  those  even  now  who  regard  it  as  but  martyr- 
dom inflicted  by  his  enemies  ;  and  yet  others  who  argue 
that  it  was  the  punishment  due  him  as  a  substitute  for 
the  sins  of  such  as  a  divine  predetermination  had  elected 
to  be  saved.  But  each  and  all  of  these  views  of  his 
agony  imply  quality  and  efficiency  in  the  sufferer  quite 
the  contrary  of  that  independence  which  he  had  pro- 
fessed before  Pilate.  Nothing  but  the  agony  of  a  devote- 
ment  which  can  endure,  without  impairment  of  quality  or 
power,  until  it  fully  conditions  the  ultimate  defeat  of  sin 
and  the  triumph  of  love,  the  realization  of  an  ideal  uni- 
verse, can  be  the  agony  of  atonement.  Suffering  is  an 
atonement,  in  fact,  if  willingly  endured  until  the  sufferer, 
unimpaired  in  character  and  power,  achieves  the  end 
which  involved  his  suffering.  But  the  sufferer  fails  to 
atone  by  his  sufferings  if  they  imply  helpless  infliction, 
correction,  or  penalty,  on  account  of  the  cause  for  which 
he  suffers.  The  self-sufficiency  of  the  atoning  one  is 
disparaged  to  the  extent  he  is  thought  conscious  of  cor- 
rection or  penalty. 

It  was  requisite,  therefore,  that  if  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  were  more  than  the  physical  pangs  of  crucifixion, 
were  the  revelation  of  a  strain  or  stress  upon  the  divine 
consciousness  which  was  developed  in  the  agony  of 
Jesus,  an  agony  incident  to  love's  unswerving  devotion 
to  the  perfect  while  affording  merciful  permission  of  sin's 
complete  self-development,  — if,  in  a  word,  his  sufferings 
revealed  the  divine  "  atoning-fact,"  —  it  was  requisite  that 
these   sufferings   should   be   clearly   exhibited   as   self- 


324 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


imposed.      They  must  evince  that  they  were  not  correc- 
tive or  penal  sufferings,  but  were  voluntarily  accepted 
with   an   undertaking   to    achieve  a  self-proposed  end. 
Hence,    his    self-submission  to  this  death  afforded  the 
utmost  human  interpretation  of  divine  love's  essential 
agony  and  its  uncompromising  antagonism  to  sin,  but 
unfailing  benevolence  to  the  sinner.     His  resurrection 
exhibited  his  shame  and  death  as  having  neither  im- 
paired his  character  or  power  nor  as  having  implied  im- 
perfection in  his  devotement  to  perfection  of  being,  but 
as  a  self-imposed  and  successful  interpretation  to  the 
world  of  the  holiness  and  benevolence  of  a  love  which 
endures  unimpaired  until  it  can  "save  to  the  uttermost." 
His  resurrection  declared  that  his   sufferings  were  for 
neither    correction    nor    punishment,    but    atonement. 
Raised  from  the  dead,  his  moral  attitude  and  quality  un- 
impaired, his  power  undiminished,  he  demonstrated  that 
atonement  was  a  fact  in  God  and  was  now  truly,  fully 
revealed  to  man.     He  is  in  an  attitude  now  to  proclaim 
moral  recuperation,  spiritual  purifying  to  the  world.    The 
divine  agony  evinces  that  perfect  holiness  and  benevo- 
lence are  one  in  love's  ideal  universe.    This  divine  agony, 
interpreted  to  men  in  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  makes  the 
divine  benevolence  evident  as  a  motive  to  holiness  in 
men.     The  divine  lenience,  instead  of  intending  oppor- 
tunity and  encouragement  to  evil,  is  re-installed  in  the 
consciousness  of  men  as  loving  forbearance,  a  motive 
"  which  leadeth  to  repentance."     The  incompatibility  of 
benevolence   from  a  holy  Creator  to   a   world  of  the 
wicked  and  vile  is  explained  by  the  agony  of  love.    The 
way  back  from  guilt  and  moral  degradation  is  cleared, 
and  every  sinner  may  "come  boldly  to  the  throne  of 
grace." 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.         ,2r 

Enough,  perhaps,  has  been  presented  to  clearly  set 
out  the  atonement  as  revealed  in  Christ.  It  is  doubt- 
less clear  that  this  is  not  a  "  satisfactionist  theory,"  a 
"  moral  influence  theory,"  nor  a  "commercial  theory." 
Nor  is  it  the  "  governmental  theory  "  in  the  ordinary 
sense  of  that  title.  But  it  is  a  governmental  theory  in 
the  sense  of  an  ideal  family  government.  Hence,  if  we 
term  it  a  theory  at  all,  it  is  the  Parental  Theory.  But 
above  all,  it  is  the  Atoning  Fact,  the  agony  of  love  in 
the  Creator,  which  he  endures  because  he  will  neither 
falter  in  the  perfect  determination  of  benevolence  nor  his 
perfect  devotion  to  the  holy;  because,  in  a  word,  his 
nature  is  love,  eternal  devotement  to  the  perfect — in 
which  perfect  holiness  and  benevolence  are  at  one  — 
at  any  cost. 

That  love  which  is  the  nature  of  independent  action 
in  the  self-determination  of  the  infinite  ego,  and  pro- 
jects an  ideal  universe,  discloses  in  the  atonement  its 
independent  ability  and  purpose  to  maintain  the  condi- 
tions upon  which  a  free  but  sinning  world  can  cast  off 
sin  and  achieve  eternal  security  in  free  companionship 
with  God.  By  enduring,  unimpaired  in  character  and 
power,  its  unspeakable  agony,  it  maintains  in  holiness  its 
devotement  to  the  realization  of  its  ideal,  and  maintains 
its  limitless  benevolence,  however  perverted  and  abused  ; 
until  the  free  universe  demonstrates  the  futility  of  sin 
and  the  independence  of  love,  and  at  every  point  in 
the  history  of  each  sinner  affords  the  conditions  of  re- 
pentance and  return  to  righteousness.  Every  returning 
sinner  finds  the  remedy  for  his  past  sins  and  present 
guilt,  not  in  any  compensation  he  can  offer,  but  in  the 
agony  of  divine  love  which  endured  them,  —  endured  un- 
impaired in  holiness  and  benevolence ;  and  hence,  con- 


326 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


tinues  "  mighty  to  save."  Every  heathen  who  offers  a 
sincere  prayer,  or  in  his  heart  turns  from  what  he  deems 
evil  to  what  he  deems  righteous,  thereby  recognizes  and 
appropriates  the  divine  mercy ;  turns  from  the  actual  to 
the  ideal  life,  from  the  dependent  to  the  independent. 
By  thus  appropriating  divine  mercy  he  acts  upon  the 
conditions  which  the  divine  agony  has  afforded  him ; 
even  though  he  is  ignorant  of  the  historical  interpreta- 
tion of  that  agony  in  Christ.  The  knowledge  of  that 
historical  interpretation  would,  doubtless,  vastly  increase 
the  motives  to  righteousness  and  exalted  character 
among  the  heathen ;  hence,  the  reasons  for  gospel  mis- 
sions among  them.  But  more  of  this  further  on.  Every 
soul,  whatever  his  belief,  who  sincerely  deprecates  his 
selfishness  and  cleaves  to  conscience  implies,  though 
unwittingly,  in  such  action  the  authority  of  the  ideal 
over  the  actual,  and  appropriates  the  ''atoning  fact." 

Thus  the  "  atoning  fact  "  answers  the  burning  question 
of  the  universe,  Does  love  realize  perfect  unselfishness 
and  yet  maintain  the  moral  authority  of  its  holiness? 
Thus,  also,  the  revelation  of  the  atoning  fact  in  the  suf- 
ferings of  Christ  puts  man  in  possession  of  the  full  in- 
centive force  of  both  the  moral  authority  of  God's 
perfect  holiness  and  his  perfect  benevolence.  The  ob- 
scured natural  implications  are  in  Christ  personally 
declared  to  man. 

The  mutual  subsistence  in  love  of  moral  purity  and 
the  perfect  carrying  out  of  benevolence  cannot  be 
thought  without  implying  the  agony  of  love.  Nor  can 
atonement  be  thought  a  reality,  except  as  that  action 
which  continues  true  to  the  perfect  throughout  the  con- 
ditions and  abuses  of  a  free  universe.  And,  in  disclos- 
ing to  man  this  awful  dominance  of  the   ideal,   love 


THE  REVELATION  OF  ATONING  FACT.        ^2y 

reveals  its  independent  self-sufficiency  as  the  projector 
and  upholder  of  a  free  universe  who  is  at  once  holy  and 
perfectly  beneficent. 

This  revelation  of  independence  and  unswerving  de- 
votion to  the  ideal,  the  true,  furnishes  man  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  (i)  God's  devotion  to  perfection  of  being; 
(2)  assures  him  of  the  presence  of  a  power  that  is 
equal  to  the  renovation  and  perfecting  of  the  universe  ; 
and  (3)  imposes  upon  his  conscience  the  absolute 
moral  authority  of  this  revealed  criterion.  By  the  first 
this  action  enables  the  world  to  discriminate  its  sin ;  by 
the  second,  exhibits  the  opportunity  and  power  for  right- 
eousness ;  and  by  the  third,  "  sets  judgment  in  the 
earth." 

Moreover,  this  atoning  action  evinces  the  ever-extend- 
ing arms  of  divine  benevolence,  beckoning  and  wooing 
sinners,  able  and  willing  to  save  all.  Thus  is  revealed, 
in  Christ,  the  divine  attitude,  which  is  the  real  "  mercy- 
seat,"  with  its  awful  agony,  the  real  "  blood  of  sprink- 
ling." Acceptance  of  these  by  the  sinner  is  that  faith 
which  subjects  actual  to  ideal  life.  The  sin-burdened 
soul,  saying,  "  I  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  finds 
here  the  "throne  of  grace." 


328 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


ESCHATOLOGY. 


And  they  shall  become  one  flock,  one  shepherd. 
And  they  shall  never  perish.  —  Jesus. 

Eschatology,  the  doctrine  of  "  ]ast  things,"  is  a  term 
which  has  generally  been  applied  to  the  events  which 
are  expected  to  mark  the  ending  of  human  affairs  on 
the  earth,  and  the  establishing  a  fixed  destiny  for  all 
dependent  persons.  Our  use  of  the  term,  however,  can 
only  apply  to  certain  states  of  personal  development 
which  will  characterize  what  we  have  termed  the  ideal, 
or  perfect  universe.  The  perfect  universe  is  the  goal 
of  love's  evolution  in  its  present  cycle ;  but  we  do  not 
contemplate  that  perfection  as  a  fixed  end  or  state,  but  a 
perfected  equipment  for  future,  ever-advancing  cycles  of 
personal  progress,  —  the  disembarrassed  companionship 
of  finite  persons  with  the  infinite  person. 

This  perfected  equipment  will  be  the  outcome  of 
forces  which  are  now  in  operation,  the  final  resolution  of 
questions  which  are  now  in  process  of  being  determined ; 
and  hence  our  eschatology  is  made  up  of  the  corollaries 
of  this  resolution.  It  does  not  threaten  an  arbitrary 
intervention  of  almighty  power  to  reward  friends  and 
punish  enemies  in  a  special  or  extra-vengeful  sense.  It 
is  the  sum  of  results  which  will  have  been  determined 
by  the  personal  universe  upon  the  conditions  evolved  by 
love.    All-conditioning  love  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 


ESCHA  TOLOGY.  ,  2  g 

Our  planet,  the  earth,  is  of  course  a  small  affair  in  the 
world  of  quantities,  and  our  race  may  be  but  a  small 
company  in  the  universe  of  persons.  But  our  planetary 
life  signifies  this  much,  at  least :  it  is  a  form  of  the  lowest 
conditions  to  the  origin  and  development  of  personal 
creatures.  How  long  the  planet  will  continue  to  serve 
that  purpose,  and  whether  its  functions  will  undergo  a 
change  or  have  an  end,  must  be  matter  of  speculation 
in  the  absence  of  a  definite  revelation.  But  this  much 
seems  clear  :  our  race  will  continue  this  earthly  life  until 
the  final  crisis,  which  is  stated  in  "The  Solution  of  Evil," 
is  reached,  when,  on  the  one  hand,  racial  and  social 
abuses  will  have  been  corrected  by  the  progress  which 
will  result  from  faith  and  love ;  and  when,  on  the  other 
hand,  physical  and  social  retribution  will  have  destroyed 
the  uncorrected  and  incorrigible  elements  of  earthly 
society. 

Moreover,  the  crisis  passed,  such  will  be  the  common 
consciousness  of  love's  excellence  and  of  the  turpitude 
of  evil  that  the  lower  tutelage  of  race  conditions  will 
be  wholly  superseded.  Their  flesh-and-blood  form  will 
be  superfluous,  and  unable  to  contribute  anything  to  the 
perfection  of  personal  life,  will  disappear.  Whether  this 
disappearance  will  be  gradual,  by  the  process  of  racial 
retribution  in  physical  death,  or  a  sudden  and  simulta- 
neous transformation  of  all  then  upon  the  earth,  is  a 
question  of  mode,  and  hence  is  a  mystery  which  may 
be  a  matter  of  revelation,  but  the  fact  is  implied  in  the 
evolution  of  love. 

The  faithful  persons  thus  changed  —  probably  "in  a 
moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye"  —  will  join  "the 
goodly  company  "  who  like  them  have  attained  to  the 
common  consciousness  of  universal  companionship  with 


33 O  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

God.  When  race  conditions  are  thus  cast  off  we  shall 
probably  have  no  use  for  the  planet,  at  least  in  its 
present  state. 

There  still  lingers,  however,  a  suggestion  that  the 
planet  may  continue  in  some  form  to  be  a  theatre  of 
interest  to  human  spirits.  This  suggestion  arises  from 
the  interest  in  the  complete  solution  of  evil  which  only 
members  of  the  human  race  may  have  in  common.  The 
forms  in  which  the  persistence  of  faith  and  the  final 
self- defeat  of  evil  shall  be  accomplished  by  our  race 
may  give  its  members  a  planetary  grouping  until  each 
individual  shall  have  entered  upon  the  full  consciousness 
of  the  perfect,  universal  companionship,  or  shall  have 
sunken  into  the  complete  isolation  of  selfishness.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  the  utter  self-defeat  of  evil,  the  persist- 
ence of  faith  and  love,  and  the  resultant  ideal  universe 
abide  as  the  essential  eschatology  of  love's  evolution. 
In  whatever  grouping  the  sometime  members  of  the 
human  race  may  find  themselves,  they  are,  nevertheless, 
factors  in  this  mighty  problem,  and  their  several  destinies 
are  the  corollaries  of  its  solution. 

Individual  destiny  is  the  question  which  "  stands 
highest  in  our  hopes  and  sinks  deepest  in  our  fears." 
This,  because  of  natural,  rightful  self-love.  Where,  or  in 
what  conditions,  does  the  solution  of  evil  place  each  per- 
son concerned  with  it  ?  This  ground  has  virtually  been 
surveyed  in  the  chapter,  "  The  Solution  of  Evil,"  hence 
we  need  only  sum  up  here  the  results  there  reached. 

Four  general  classes  comprehend  all  the  members  of 
our  race  :  the  innocent,  the  faithful,  the  selfish,  and  the 
incorrigibly  selfish. 

The  innocent  include,  first,  idiots,  and  perhaps  "in- 
fants of  days."    Their  innocence  is  not  moral,  but  natural, 


ESCHATOLOGY.  1$! 

like  the  innocence  of  a  bird  or  a  lamb.  Never  having 
exercised  self-determination,  they  have  not  attained 
to  individual  self-consciousness.  They  are  persons 
only  in  the  sense  of  a  bundle  of  personal  conditions. 
Their  life  has  not  been  one  of  self-determined  per- 
sonality, but  merely  the  spontaneity  of  race  conditions. 
Hence  physical  death,  which  is  merely  racial  retribution, 
the  dissolution  of  race  conditions,  must,  so  far  as  we 
can  affirm  without  a  revelation  on  the  subject,  end  their 
being.  As  to  the  idiotic,  this  statement  applies  only  to 
those  who  are  wholly  so.  There  are  some  classed  as 
idiotic  who  are  but  partially  so  unfortunate,  but  who  are 
consciously  self-determining.  Yet  their  self-determina- 
tion is  exercised  upon  such  distorted  conditions  that 
they  do  not  discriminate  moral  motives.  Although  they 
have  by  self-determination  attained  positive  personality, 
they  must  be  classed  as  innocent  persons  who  will  survive 
physical  death,  relieved  of  the  defective  organism  which 
occasioned  their  idiocy.  Again,  some  of  the  idiotic  have 
evinced  moral  discrimination,  and  developed  positive 
moral  qualities,  and  hence,  according  to  their  moral 
determination,  must  be  classed  with  either  the  faithful 
or  the  selfish. 

There  are  tribes  of  men  who,  we  are  told,  scarcely 
evince  moral  discrimination.  Excepting  a  few  in- 
dividuals among  them,  they  seem  to  have  no  personal 
determination,  manifest  none  but  racial  qualities,  and 
herd  or  mate  from  force  of  merely  race  conditions. 
Their  selfishness  is  not  more  positive  than  the  spon- 
taneity of  race  instincts,  nor  is  their  sincerity  distinguish- 
able from  the  simplicity  of  natural  impulse.  If  this  is  a 
true  representation  their  personal  existence  must  be 
thought  to  end  with  the  collapse  of  race  conditions  in 


332 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


physical  death.  But  we  are  prone  to  discredit  these 
representations  and  believe  them  to  be  rather  hasty 
conclusions  affected  by  laying  undue  importance  upon 
external  culture  as  the  basis  of  moral  character.  The 
elements  of  moral  character  are  not  largely  derived  from 
external  culture,  but  chiefly  from  intuitional  facts ;  they 
are  born  in  us.  And  because  they  are  intuitive  they  are 
universal ;  as  a  rule,  all  men  have  them  ;  and  for  the  same 
reason,  they  are  uniform  in  all  men.  Since  innocence 
and  guilt,  piety  and  impiety,  arise  from  internal  elements 
and  outer  universals  which  in  no  way  depend  upon  ex- 
ternal culture,  it  is  easy  to  underestimate  the  moral 
strength  of  the  uncultured.  The  morbid  "animalism" 
which  they  derive  from  the  degradation  of  racial  and 
social  conditions  which  ancient  idolatries  have  imposed 
upon  them,  doubtless  renders  gross  and  dull  their 
spiritual  perceptions ;  insomuch  that  they  do  not 
personally  transcend  infantile  and  idiotic  conditions 
until  much  later  in  life  than  is  the  case  among  en- 
lightened peoples.  Hence  a  larger  proportion  of  them 
will  probably  perish  with  the  dissolution  of  physical 
conditions. 

Many  individuals,  not  idiots  or  infants,  who  seem  to 
never  exercise  any  considerable  degree  of  self-deter- 
mination may  be  found  in  all  tribes  of  men.  Their 
physical  death  must  be  thought  as  either  a  passing  into 
the  future  state  of  infantile  innocence,  or  having  sunken 
in  personal  consciousness  to  the  level  of  merely  race- 
conditions,  or  perishing  in  physical  dissolution. 

The  less  ignorant,  who  practise  self-determination  in 
very  crude  conditions,  as  the  great  mass  of  the  heathen 
world  for  example,  may  develop  a  feeble  flame,  emitting 
no   light   but  evincing   life,   like   a  wick  of  "  smoking 


ESCHATOLOGY.  ~„ 

flax  ;  "  they  nurse  within  them  a  faith  in  something  upon 
which  they  persistently  depend  as  God.  It  is  a  some- 
thing in  which  they  hope  for  better  conditions ;  some- 
thing which  they  invoke  in  the  hour  of  trouble  or 
suffering  or  death  ;  something  for  which,  indeed,  some  of 
them  are  willing  to  suffer  or  die.  In  such  crude 
conditions,  renouncing  selfishness  they  attain  to  har- 
mony with  all-conditioning  love,  either  as  innocent  or 
as  positively  faithful. 

Children  and  all  of  any  age,  in  all  lands,  who  have 
exercised  personal  determination  in  any  degree,  have 
attained  individual  personality,  but  have  not  sufficient 
intelligence  to  have  intentionally  chosen  selfishness,  as 
such,  will  survive  physical  death  as  innocent  persons. 
We  have  stated  substantially  in  "The  Solution  of  Evil : " 
After  self-determining  action  is  once  begun,  however 
faintly,  the  personal  nature  is  individualized,  and  indi- 
vidual self-consciousness  takes  its  rise  and  retains  its  per- 
sonal identity  through  all  subsequent  changes,  until,  by 
self-determined  abuse  of  the  personal  nature  it  may  be 
sunken  in  complete  self-limitation  and  ultimately  lost. 
The  rise  and  earlier  development  of  personality  is 
doubtless  in  accordance  with  circumstances,  and  the 
instinctive  impulses  upon  which  it  acts  may  have  been 
depraved  by  ancestry  and  social  influences.  Its  debased 
racial  conditions  may  impose  upon  it  disease,  defective 
physical  organization,  feebleness,  or  early  death ;  and 
social  surroundings  may  afford  it  little  but  villanous  in- 
citements. Yet  the  implicit  sincerity  with  which  it 
personally  acts  in  accordance  with  these  conditions  is  an 
innocent,  yes,  virtuous  use  of  its  personal  nature,  and 
determines  its  character  as  one  of  innocent  inten- 
tion.    Not  until  it  is  sufficiently  advanced  to  deliber- 


334  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

ately  and  of  purpose  reject  pure  intention  and  adopt 
selfish  intention  does  it  abuse  its  personal  conditions  or 
form  corrupt  character.  Hence  if  physical  death  over- 
take it  while  in  this  character  of  personal  innocence  it  must 
be  thought  to  persist  in  a  future  state  as  an  innocent 
person  of  morally  pure  intention. 

All  of  any  age,  in  all  lands,  who  have  exercised 
personal  determination  in  any  degree,  but  have  not 
sufficient  mental  development  to  have  chosen  wicked- 
ness, as  such,  are  innocent  and  in  essential  harmony 
with  divine  love.  They  take  rank  with  that  class  of 
beings  whose  further  development  will  be  in  the  absence 
of  temptation,  who  "do  always  behold  the  face"  of 
God.  They  must  depend  upon  environment  for  con- 
sciousness of  moral  security  until  self-conscious  security 
is  acquired  by  association  with  those  whose  security  has 
been  self-determined  "  through  much  tribulation." 

The  faithful,  —  a  class  which  comprehends  both  those 
who  have  attained  steadfast  security  in  faith  and  love 
and  all  who,  even  through  much  of  failure  and  waver- 
ing, still  persist  in  the  endeavor  of  self-conquest ;  as  also 
those  who,  while  advancing  in  the  consciousness  of  an 
ever-widening  horizon  of  knowledge  and  trial,  ascend  to 
higher  altitudes  of  faith,  realizing  deeper  harmony,  en- 
larging freedom,  and  approaching  entire  security  in  com- 
panionship with  love's  motives,  sympathies,  and  spirit. 
From  the  weakest  craft  which  rocks  on  the  sea  of  life, 
but  bears  for  the  same  port  to  which  the  erect  and 
steady  steamer  points  her  prow,  there  floats  the  ensign 
of  the  faithful. 

"  Him  that  overcometh  ! "  Those  persons  who,  by 
that  faith  which  subjects  the  actual  to  the  ideal,  have 
overcome  their  susceptibility  to  selfishness,   will    have 


ESCHATOLOGY.  235 

determined  themselves  in  harmony  with  divine  love  to 
a  degree  which  renders  their  companionship  with  God 
self-persistent.  They  need  no  objective  demonstration 
of  the  failure  of  evil,  need  no  removal  of  objective  mo- 
tives to  sin.  They  have  cancelled  selfishness  by  faith. 
Their  faith  has  overcome  the  world  in  its  sinful  power 
and  splendor.  When  wickedness  "  did  abound  "  their 
love  did  not  grow  cold.  They  have  determined  their 
largest  freedom  in  moral  harmony  and  perfect  security. 
They  have  demonstrated  their  faith  in  the  self-deter- 
mining perfection  of  love.  They  have  actualized  an 
ideal  egoism  by  practising  an  unselfish  altruism.  Los- 
ing their  life  for  love's  sake,  they  have  found  it. 

But  perhaps  there  are  pure  persons  who  have  ever 
dwelt  in  an  environment  of  unmarred  love.  They  have 
never  known  sin  nor  a  temptation  to  sin ;  never,  even, 
a  hurtful  error.  They  could,  for  aught  we  can  see,  con- 
tinue to  develop  securely  under  such  circumstances. 
But,  as  among  themselves,  they  could  never  experience 
self-determined  security.  Their  susceptibility  to  a  selfish 
development  of  self-love,  if  exposed  to  temptation,  could 
never  be  beyond  question.  Nor  can  we  conceive  that 
their  self-determination  could,  in  the  absence  of  disci- 
pline by  error  and  temptation,  ever  attain  the  widest 
freedom  which  is  possible  to  a  person  whose  faith,  love, 
and  progress  have  been  developed  and  confirmed  amid 
the  strenuous  exigencies  of  virtuous  hardship.  A  secure 
and  free  universe  cannot  be  thought  possible,  except  as 
self-determined ;  hence  the  grand  nucleus  of  a  perfect 
universe  must  be  the  "  triumphant  host "  who  shall  have 
"  come  up  through  great  tribulation  "  and  "  have  right  to 
the  tree  of  life." 

In  association  with  this  "  triumphant  host,"  and  wit- 


2^6  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

nessing  the  demonstrated  failure  of  evil,  angels  who  may 
have  hitherto  known  only  conditions  of  justice,  dwelling 
only  in  an  environment  of  divine  glory,  may  "  desire  to 
look  into  "  and  learn  such  lessons  of  demonstrated  faith 
and  love ;  and  may  thus  determine  in  themselves  a  con- 
scious aversion,  hence  unsusceptibility,  to  selfishness. 

Children  who  have  passed  from  human  conditions 
without  human  temptation  or  probation  into  the  con- 
ditions and  associations  of  the  blessed,  dwelling  ever  in 
the  environment  of  overmastering  incitement  to  love, 
will  also,  by  association  with  self-determined  saints, 
attain  to  the  same  transcendent  security  which  is  realized 
by  the  faithful  in  their  self-determined  unsusceptibility 
to  selfishness.  To  afford  to  these  pure  but  undeveloped 
ones  the  means  of  determining  a  self-conscious  security, 
as  against  possible  selfishness,  something  is  requisite. 
That  requisite  is  in  the  objective  motivity  afforded  by 
association  with  the  self-determined  security  and  the 
intimate  harmony  which  are  evinced  in  the  wide  freedom 
of  the  faithful ;  and,  also  in  the  universal  consciousness 
resulting  from  the  persistence  of  love  and  the  self-defeat 
of  sin. 

This  we  deem  the  true  solution  of  the  relation  of  all 
persons  who  in  innocence  pass,  by  death,  from  this 
world's  environment  of  temptation  without  having  at- 
tained to  steadfast  self-adjustment  to  moral  conditions. 
This  includes  not  only  deceased  children,  but  many  of 
maturer  years  who  have  attained  conscious,  individual 
personality,  but  who,  because  of  extreme  ignorance, 
natural  stupidity,  or  other  defective  conditions,  may 
never  have  consciously  determined  for  or  against  a  life 
of  faith. 

But  the  discipline  of  error  and  temptation,  such  as 


ESCHATOLOGY. 


337 


human  life  here  is  intended  to  afford,  is  essential  to  the 
development  of  that  subjective  aversion  to  selfish 
motives  which,  along  with  confirmed  faith,  establishes 
the  consciousness  of  eternal  security  in  finite  persons. 
Hence,  that  consciousness  of  security  could  never  be 
attained  if,  like  infants  and  imbeciles,  or  possibly  angels, 
all  finite  persons  were  to  determine  their  characters 
amidst  that  immaculate  environment  which  we  term 
heaven.  Hence  the  struggle  of  human  life,  so  far  as  it 
is  a  struggle  with  temptations,  ignorance,  and  weakness, 
is  only  that  without  which  a  perfectly  secure  universe 
could  never  be  attained.  And  when  once  sin  has  arisen 
this  struggle  must  include  the  demonstration  of  faith  and 
love,  as  against  sin,  in  order  to  achieve  ultimate  security. 
Consequently,  individuals  who,  from  any  cause,  miss 
the  probation  of  error  and  its  incident  temptations, 
do  not  belong  to  the  securely  self-determined  universe, 
but  must  rise  from  their  mere  innocence  to  self-conscious 
security  by  determining  their  characters  with  reference 
to  the  universal  public  consciousness  which  has  been 
established  by  the  faithful  who  have  wrought  out  the 
practical  solution  of  evil. 

Remember  that  the  development  of  securely  pure 
character  is  but  the  discipline  of  self-love  in  devotion  to 
self-perfection,  in  harmony  with  the  perfection  of  others. 
Remember  that  this  devotion  is  complete  susceptibility 
to  the  ideal,  the  true,  the  perfect.  Remember  that  it 
precludes  devotion  to  the  pleasurable  satisfaction  of 
means,  —  that  is,  precludes  selfishness.  Remember  that 
the  rise  and  self-defeat  of  selfishness  have  stripped  it  of 
all  plausible  illusions,  exposed  it  as  infinite  crime,  and 
abolished  its  objective  motivity.  Remember  that  de- 
votion to  the  realization  of  perfect  being  is  the  estab- 


33^ 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


lished  ambition,  the  enthusiastic  public  sentiment  of  the 
faithful,  established  upon  their  faith  and  determined  by 
their  love.  This  intimate  companionship  with  God,  the 
steadfast  purity  and  all  but  boundless  freedom  of  their 
spontaneity,  are  but  the  exponents  of  a  pure  self-love, 
rendered  unsusceptible  to  selfishness  by  their  devotion 
to  perfection  of  being.  Remembering  these  things,  it 
will  be  easy  to  see  that  innocent  persons  developing 
in  the  midst  of  such  associations  must  readily  mature 
a  self-love  which  is  wholly  in  harmony  with  these  asso- 
ciations. The  sentiment  and  activities  of  a  universal 
life  which  results  from  the  demonstration  of  love's 
perfection  and  sin's  infinite  failure  and  disgrace  render 
the  temptation  to  evil  impossible.  That  question  has 
been  settled  forever.  Hence  it  is  clear  that  these 
innocent  but  undeveloped  persons  must  develop  into 
a  like  unsusceptibility  to  selfishness  and  a  like  devo- 
tion to  perfection  of  being. 

Security  in  devotion  to  self-perfection  is  the  only  ob- 
ject of  probation ;  and  since  this  devotion  may  be  at- 
tained by  innocent  persons  when  associated  with  the 
faithful,  we  can  see  no  occasion  for  a  "  future  probation  " 
for  children  and  innocent  heathen.  Unless  we  accom- 
modate the  term  "  probation  "  to  mean  this  progressive 
development  of  the  innocent  in  association  with  the 
faithful  there  appears  no  standing-ground  for  the  suppo- 
sition termed  "  future  probation."  Failure  of  the  inno- 
cent to  develop  the  highest  susceptibility  to  love  and  all 
its  qualities,  and  aversion  to  selfishness,  in  such  an  envi- 
ronment is  inconceivable.  To  obliterate  the  liability  of 
their  self-love  to  perversion  is  to  establish  their  perpetual 
moral  harmony.  Hence  to  secure  this  obliteration  is 
the  only  significance  of  probation.     There  could  be  no 


ESCHATOLOGY.  .™ 

occasion  for  a  probation,  no  liability  of  self-love  to  selfish- 
ness, if  persons  could  be  created  with  a  "  ready-made  " 
experience  that  love  is  perfect  action,  that  its  ideals  are 
essential  truth,  that  the  realization  of  its  ideals  is  the 
highest  good ;  and,  on  the  contrary,  that  selfishness  is 
demonstrably  infinite  folly  and  turpitude,  an  object  of 
universal  aversion  and  contempt.  But  in  a  community 
which  is  a  demonstrated  result  of  all  these  facts  a  sup- 
posed probation  is  equally  superfluous.  Knowledge  of 
the  infinite  infamy  of  selfishness,  the  self-sustained  per- 
sistence of  love,  and  the  actual  and  evident  strength  and 
freedom  of  the  faithful  constitute  conditions  of  a  civili- 
zation in  the  midst  of  which  the  faith  of  these  innocent 
persons  is  exercised.  Constant  fellowship  with  such 
transcendent  type  of  society  incites  and  informs  their 
self-love,  and  leads  it  up  from  the  consciousness  of 
security  from  sin  by  means  of  association  to  the  con- 
sciousness of  self-determined  security. 

Future  punishment  of  the  selfish  is  simply  the  self- 
defeat  of  uncorrected  evil.  As  this  self-defeat  has  been 
outlined  in  "  The  Solution  of  Evil"  we  need  only  con- 
sider here  its  main  aspects.  These  are  the  fact,  the 
mode,  and  the  duration  of  the  perishing  agony. 

In  much  of  the  theological  discussion  of  this  subject 
these  questions  have  been  strangely  mixed.  Affirming 
future  punishment  as  a  positive  infliction  of  special 
tortures  by  divine  resentment,  Biblical  expressions,  which 
employ  accommodated  language  to  express  the  effect 
upon  man  of  his  right  or  wrong  adjustment  toward  the 
changeless  nature  and  invariable  action  of  God,  have 
been  construed  in  the  most  literal  sense.  Whether 
representing  God  as  in  the  petulant  mood  of  ranting 
fury  toward  the  wicked  or  in  the  ridiculous  attitude  of 


,4o  THE  EVOLUTION  OF   LOVE. 

spewing  the  luke-warm  out  of  his  mouth,  this  method  of 
interpretation  is  alike  crude  and  absurd.  In  the  same 
way  it  affirms  the  fact,  mode,  and  duration  of  the  catas- 
trophe of  sin  as  an  eternal  fit  of  divine  choler  in  process 
of  irate  satisfaction.  The  theological  revulsion  from 
these  teachings  has  been  equally  undiscriminating. 
Stumbling  at  such  views  of  the  mode,  it  has  blindly 
denied  the  fact  and  duration  of  final  penalty.  While 
the  former  view  exhibits  God  as  a  raging  and  pitiless 
tyrant,  the  latter  implies  he  is  a  doting  imbecile.  The 
average  religious  character  induced  by  these  views  in 
those  who  have  accepted  them  has  generally  evinced 
narrow  though  virtuous  severity  in  the  one  case,  easy- 
going sentimentality  in  the  other. 

The  Fact.  —  Insomuch  as  the  all-conditioning  love  of 
God  maintains  the  conditions  to  human  innocence, 
faith,  and  love,  whether  by  natural  or  supernatural  modes 
or  both,  selfish  self-determination  rejects  the  object  of 
these  conditions,  perverts  the  conditions  in  their  use, 
and  hence  limits  and  degrades  the  person  who  so  deter- 
mines himself.  Whoever  perishes  does  so  by  his  own 
act.  All  who  appropriate  the  conditions  to  faith  "  wash 
their  robes  "  and  are  saved.  All  who  reject  and  pervert 
them  "  defile  themselves  "  and  are  lost.  Having  arrived 
at  a  state  of  maturity  sufficient  to  reject  righteousness, 
as  such,  they  drop  away  by  physical  death  from  these 
conditions  to  faith  and  love,  and  thus  lose  contact  with 
the  means  through  which  their  harmony  with  divine 
love  might  have  been  determined.  Their  self-deter- 
mined persistence  in  selfishness  is  their  self-defeat. 
Their  characters  are  deliberately  self-determined  selfish- 
ness, and  consequently  the  intervention  of  physical 
death  removes  them  hence  in  uncorrected  sin.     Dying 


ESCHATOLOGY.  ,  „ 

without  having  actualized  their  quasi  expectation  to 
"sometime,"  as  a  matter  of  convenience,  turn  to  re- 
pentance and  faith,  they  must  be  thought  to  have  entered 
upon  a  future  state  of  retribution.  Obdurately  impeni- 
tent while  enjoying  immunity  from  retribution,  their 
quasi  intention  to  reform  at  some  convenient  time  is 
only  a  selfish  forecast  which  can  never  be  capable  of 
faith.     It  is  simply  a  form  of  moral  incorrigibility. 

We  have  seen  that  love,  in  creating  dependent  per- 
sons, requires  that  the  rise  of  their  personality  must  be 
conditioned  at  the  lowest  point  at  which  progressive 
self-determination  is  possible.  Now  if  this  racial  and 
social  life  affords  the  lowest  and  easiest  conditions  which 
all-conditioning  love  can  posit  for  the  rise,  progress,  and 
perfection  of  finite  persons,  then  the  debasement  of 
individual  life  in  these  conditions  must  be  thought  such 
as  to  be  totally  unsusceptible  to  any  conditions  to  per- 
sonal improvement  which  love  can  ever  afford.  To 
those  who  have  perverted  and  debased  these  lowest 
conditions  of  personal  development,  physical  death  must 
be  thought  a  change  which  renders  them  conscious  of 
conditions  quite  hopeless.  By  no  line  of  reasoning  can 
we  conclude  that  the  abuse  of  our  present  nature  can 
result  in  an  improved  nature  more  susceptible  to  correc- 
tive faith.  And  if  individuals  continue  to  debase  earthly 
conditions  which  are  most  favorable  to  progressive  mo- 
tives, perverting  them  from  the  moral  susceptibility  of 
childhood  innocence  to  self-determined  depravity,  death 
must  be  to  them  a  change  to  a  more  radical  and  hope- 
less maladjustment  toward  love  and  God. 

The  mode  of  future  penalty  is  expressed  in  the  "  sink- 
ing of  personality,"  which  is  outlined  in  the  "  Solution 
of  Evil."     The  consciousness  of  disharmony  with  the 


342 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 


conditions  of  his  personality,  and  the  absence  of  an 
environment  which  can  minister  to  his  morbid  desires 
must  make  it  a  situation  of  unrelieved  despair  to  the 
lost  soul.  In  his  earthly  life  he  had  given  morbid 
development  to  affections  for  merely  social  gratifica- 
tion ;  had  determined  himself  upon  the  assumption  that 
this  life  is  the  whole  of  his  being,  and  gave  to  it  his 
chief  devotement.  This  practical  infidelity  to  his  per- 
sonal being  not  only  rendered  his  race  affections  morbid 
and  brute-like  and  ignored  or  perverted  his  spiritual 
nature,  but  acquired  a  false,  ungodly,  vicious,  personal 
character.  He  is  not  only  unsusceptible  to  godly  mo- 
tives, but  to  the  extent  his  personality  is  determined,  he 
impersonates  aversion  to  the  qualities  and  motives  of 
love-determined  life.  Having  by  physical  death  lost  the 
facilities  for  selfish  gratification  which  race  conditions 
and  perverted  social  life  had  afforded,  he  is  now  a  mor- 
bid energy,  destitute  of  those  sources  of  satisfaction. 
He  is  now  insatiate,  appalled,  tormented  by  the  reac- 
tion, retribution,  of  all-conditioning  love,  "  the  wrath  of 
God." 

Prophet,  poet,  and  teacher  have  thrown  around  these 
realities  much  of  imagery  to  picture  to  our  minds  the 
dreadful  nature  of  this  catastrophe.  Some  have  sought 
to  render  them  more  horrible  by  materialistic  interpre- 
tation, but  our  object  is  to  simply  trace  the  main  facts 
which  are  implied  in  personal  being.  The  elements  of 
our  God-given  personal  nature  which  we  have  incor- 
porated into  our  personality  and  made  our  own  in 
perverted  use  may  give  us  greater  agony  in  their  retrib- 
utive process  than  would  the  stretch  and  strain  and 
burning  by  externally  applied  tortures.  Love  is  the 
most  intense  flame  ever  kindled,  —  hot  enough  to  fuse 


ESCHA  TOLOGY.  ,43 

and  crystallize  the  harmonies  of  an  immortal  universe 
and  to  consume  the  dross  of  selfish  ages. 

"  Ah,  love  !     Love  !     Stainless  life  of  God !     Man's  will 
Alone  avails  to  mar  thy  universe  ! 
Still  lov'st  thou  man  !  —  though  he  by  chosen  ill 

His  self-perversive  selfishness  doth  nurse  ! 
Ever  thy  blessing  turns  he  to  a  curse  ! 

Till  fixed  in  Self's  insensate  hate  of  God, 
To  him  a  torment  is  love's  sweetest  verse. 
Thy  flame  burns  on,  as  on  the  ages  plod, 
But  seems,  in  sin's  perverted  realm,  the  wrath  of  God." 

The  mode  of  final  retribution  is  not  definitely  de- 
scribed in  the  sacred  Scriptures ;  hence  different  views 
are  held  by  those  who  accept  them  as  containing  super- 
natural revelations  regarding  the  mode  :  first,  that  it 
consists  of  eternal  consciousness  of  misery  or  torment ; 
secondly,  the  tendency  of  sinful  life  is  seen  in  this  world 
to  be  self-limiting  to  personality,  and  will  result  in  final 
extinction  of  the  personal  consciousness  of  the  sinner, 
and  so  be  eternal.  The  statements  of  the  Bible  may  be 
interpreted  perhaps  by  the  first  view,  but  clearly  and 
certainly  by  the  second.  But  the  fact  of  eternally 
irrevocable  penalty  is  the  obvious  teaching  of  these 
sacred  writings,  conspicuously  and  unflinchingly  the 
teaching  of  Christ,  although  there  is  difference  of  opin- 
ion among  "  orthodox  Christians  "  as  to  mode.  "  The 
Evolution  of  Love  "  sustains  the  second  view.  This  is 
not  annihilationism  nor  restorationism,  but  the  self- 
sinking  of  personality. 

The  Duration  of  personal  retribution  is  final,  forever. 
Different  degrees  of  personal  depravity  must  result  from 
difference  in  the  degrees  of  definiteness  with  which 
different  persons  recognize  and  abuse  the  conditions  to 


344  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

faith  and  love.  Hence  among  the  selfish  there  must 
result  different  grades  of  personal  development  in  selfish 
intention,  and  correspondingly  different  degrees  of  tur- 
pitude and  ill-desert.  Everything  which  enters  into 
motivity,  whether  of  inner  susceptibility  or  outer  incen- 
tive, affords  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  personal  deter- 
mination, and  according  to  this  motivity  does  personality 
make  itself  positive  and  persistent.  And  according  to 
the  magnitude,  so  to  speak,  of  the  motivity  to  righteous- 
ness is  the  degree  of  his  turpitude  who  sins  against  it. 
This  accords  with  the  general  principle  that  the  merit  or 
demerit  of  any  personal  act,  good  or  bad,  is  in  propor- 
tion to  the  magnitude  of  opposing  influences. 

It  is  obvious,  then,  that  according  to  the  degree  of 
motivity  three  things  are  equally  determined  in  the  lost 
sinner,  namely :  the  persistence  of  personal  conscious- 
ness ;  the  depth  of  turpitude ;  and  the  degree  of  ill- 
desert.  The  agony  of  perishing,  therefore,  will  be  grad- 
uated, in  both  intensity  and  duration,  by  the  individual 
self-determination  of  the  lost ;  "  and  to  whomsoever 
much  is  given,  of  him  shall  much  be  required."  "  But 
he  that  knew  not,  and  did  things  worthy  of  stripes,  shall 
be  beaten  with  few  stripes."  The  self- wrought  catastro- 
phe of  selfishness  will  not  be  more  terrible  than  its  own 
antagonism  to  love  shall  make  it,  nor  more  bitter  than 
its  own  self-induced  aversion  to  that  love  which  will 
condition  its  despair.  "  If  I  make  my  bed  in  hell,  be- 
hold, thou  art  there." 

"  How  long  the  process  of  sinking  personality  may 
continue  is  a  question  which  we  have  no  exact  data  from 
which  to  answer.  The  relative  persistence  of  different 
persons  in  the  agony  of  perishing  is  implied  in  the  nature 
of  personality.    One's  personal  self-consciousness  may  be 


ESCHATOLOGY.  345 

thought  persistent  in  proportion  as  his  selfish  purpose  is 
definitely  determined.  Hence,  selfish  personality  in  its 
most  elaborate  determination  may  be  expected  to  cling 
to  its  purpose  longest,  and  therefore  persist  longest  in 
the  perishing  process.  '  He  shall  be  beaten  with  many 
stripes.'  But  all-conditioning  love  cannot  be  thought 
to  continue  the  personal  nature  in  conscious  torture 
after  the  consciousness  of  self-determination  is  lost.  A 
person  has  perished  !  "     (See  "  Solution  of  Evil.") 

Thus  the  evolution  of  love  affords  the  realization  of  a 
harmonious  universe  by  the  self-determined  security  of 
the  faithful,  the  conditioning  of  the  innocent  in  the 
society  of  the  faithful,  the  lapse  of  non-determined 
natures,  and  the  sunken  personality  of  the  obdurate. 
The  ground  having  been  cleared,  in  the  universal  con- 
sciousness, of  all  question  of  love  as  perfect  action,  the 
perfect  adjustment  of  being,  the  moral  possibility  of  any 
falling  away  of  the  innocent  or  faithful,  in  the  presence 
of  infinite  motives  to  love  and  the  total  absence  of  selfish 
motivity,  is  forever  transcended. 

The  Harmonized  Universe  will  become  a  matter  of 
universal  consciousness.  We  emphasize  that  this  state 
of  self- secured  freedom  and  harmony  will  be  known  by 
all  as  the  self-determined  universe.  The  evolution  of 
love  implies  it  as  an  object ;  and  it  is  the  outcome  of 
the  solution  of  evil.  Hence,  in  this  respect  at  least,  the 
personal  universe  is  destined  to  be  one  community. 

This  is  the  perfected  equipment  for  future,  ever- 
advancing  cycles  of  personal  progress.  Whether  it  has 
been  for  our  race,  alone,  or  for  the  universe,  the  solution 
of  evil,  incident  to  the  evolution  of  love,  must  establish 
an  all-pervading  consciousness  which  will  afford  new 
conditions  to  personal  development,  —  conditions  in  the 


246  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LOVE. 

midst  of  which  innocent  though  inexperienced  millions 
may  be  created,  without  dread  of  their  defection.  They 
may  be  safely  launched  upon  a  life  of  personal  freedom, 
created  in  higher  types,  perhaps  the  highest  type,  of  in- 
telligence and  power  which  it  is  possible  to  create. 

The  need  of  planetary,  racial,  or  physical  conditions 
of  any  kind,  may  be  wholly  superseded.  The  self- 
determined  harmony  and  security  of  a  personal  world  or 
universe  having  been  established,  like  the  foundation- 
walls  of  a  majestic  temple,  there  will  be  no  further  need 
of  "  scaffolding  from  the  ground  "  to  carry  up  the  still 
ascending  superstructure.  The  "  weak  point  "  of  finite 
personality,  self-love's  susceptibility  to  selfishness,  is  now 
bridged  and  buttressed  forever.  For  aught  we  can  see, 
the  physical  orbs  will,  gradually  or  simultaneously,  dis- 
appear. The  divine  activities  which  have  constituted 
their  phenomena  may  cease ;  their  splendor  "  dissolve 
like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  dream  ;  and  leave  not  a 
wreck  behind."  The  real,  the  personal  universe  will 
have  been  established ;  and  the  evolution  of  love  will 
press  on,  without  a  jar,  to  determine  altruistic  perfection. 

A  New  Cycle  is  begun.  It  is  the  opening  of  a  new 
stage  of  development,  upon  which  the  resources  of  love, 
the  nature  of  universal  self-determination  may  unfold  in 
ever-progressing  self-consciousness.  Those  who  under 
besetment  of  selfishness  had  regained  the  devotement  of 
love  by  being  "  faithful  in  a  few  things "  are  now 
equipped  to  be  "  rulers  over  many."  It  is  the  dawn  of 
eternity's  "golden  age,"  the  undisturbed  companion- 
ship of  finite  and  infinite,  the  enlarged  condition  and 
opportunity  of  perhaps  hitherto  unexploited  creative 
energies. 


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